DUSHANBE, July 5, Asia-Plus — On Wednesday July 4, the Embassy of Canada celebrated Canada Day at the Marian’s Guest House in Dushanbe.
Press release issued by the Embassy of Canada said that representatives from the Tajik government, diplomatic missions, international organizations, cultural and educational institutions had joined the celebrations to mark Canada Day.
Margaret Skok, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada stated “ I am delighted to be here, in the Republic of Tajikistan, where we have enjoyed long term cooperation between our two countries and peoples in the spheres of security, anti terrorism, agrarian reform, governance and private sector development. We are excited at the prospects for building new bridges, which will exist for future generations. I am thankful to the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan and its officials, for the support that they have demonstrated in our bilateral and multilateral relations.”
Canada Day (French
:
Fête du Canada
) is Canada’s national holiday, marking the establishment of Canada as a self-governing countryon July 1, 1897. It is a federal holiday generally celebrated on July 1, annually by all provincial governments and most businesses across the country.
Canada Day marks the creation of Canada as a Dominion through the British North America Act, unting three British colonies – the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canda. The three colonies united to form one country divided into four provinces. The Province of Canada became Ontario and Quebec.
Canada has been providing development assistance to Tajikistan since 1994, mainly through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which has contributed a total of more than CAD $25 million to date for development and humanitarian assistance. Presently CIDA”s bilateral program in Central Asia focuses primarily on Tajikistan, with a sector concentration on agriculture and water, with disbursements amounting to about CAD $8 million per year. Canada has decided to support programming in Tajikistan as the focus country in Central Asia.
