DUSHANBE, November 24, 2008, Asia-Plus — Next year, Tajikistan is expected to open a free trade zone (FTZ) in GBAO’s Ishkashim district and a free economic zone (FEZ) in the city of Kulob, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister, Amonullo Ashour, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the government is currently drafting regulations on the FTZ Ishkashim FTZ and the FEZ Kulob and the document is expected to be adopted at the beginning of the next year.
In Ishkashim, the free trade zone will be established near the bridge across the Panj River linking Tajik and Afghan territories. “Ishkashim has good potentials for expansion of trade cooperation of our country with Afghanistan,” the deputy minister said.
A free trade zone (FTZ) or export processing zone (EPZ) is one or more special areas of a country where some normal trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas are eliminated and bureaucratic requirements are lowered in hopes of attracting new business and foreign investments.
Most FTZs are located in developing countries. Bureaucracy is typically minimized by outsourcing it to the FTZ operator and corporations setting up in the zone may be given tax breaks as an additional incentive. Usually, these zones are set up in underdeveloped parts of the host country, the rationale being that the zones will attract employers and thus reduce poverty and unemployment and stimulate the area”s economy.
As far as the FEZ Kulob is concerned, it will have the agricultural orientation, Ashour said.
We will recall that on October 29, the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) endorsed regulations on establishment of two FEZs in Tajikistan – FEZ Sughd in the territory of the city of Khujand, Sughd province and FEZ Panj in the territory of Khatlon’s Qumsangir district.
