KHUJAND, October 17, 2008, Asia-Plus — Over the first nine months of this year, labor migrants from the Sughd province have remitted 495 million US dollars to banks in Sughd, Usmon Olimov, the head of the Sughd economy and antimonopoly policy directorate, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
This amount is equal to nearly 40 percent of the country’s budget for 2008, which stood at 4.557 billion somoni (equivalent to some US$1.3 billion).
“Over same period of last year, Sughd labor migrants had remitted 287 million US dollars to local bank,” Olimov said.
In the meantime, the migration service within the Sughd police directorate said that compared to last year, the number of residents of northern Tajikistan leaving the country in search of better employment opportunities has reduced. Over the first nine months of this year, 176,763 residents of Sughd, including 137,461 men, 22,769 women and 10,533 minors, have traveled to other CIS states, primarily Russia, seeking better employment opportunities, while in January-September 2007, 370,146 residents of the province left the country in search of seasonal work.
Labor migrants are a critical component in Tajikistan’s economy. Remittances keep many families at home above the poverty line. An estimated 600,000 Tajik seasonal workers travel abroad each year, primarily to Russia but also to neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
