DUSHANBE, November 26, 2008, Asia-Plus — State and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the World Bank were the focus of a meeting of President Emomali Rahmon with Ms. Annette Dixon, Country Director for five countries of central Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), in Dushanbe on November 25.
Speaking to reporters of the meeting with Rahmon, Ms. Dixon said that she had met with the Tajik president at the end of her tenure in that position. She is appointed the World Bank Regional Director for South-East Asia.
Ms. Dixon noted that impact of global financial crisis on Tajikistan had been one of major topics of their talks. Although source of the financial crisis is far away, Tajikistan and other developing countries will experience its effects, the regional director said, noting that the government of Tajikistan and the World Bank leadership shared similar stance on the global crisis’ impact.
Ms. Dixon noted that Tajikistan should speed up economic reforms in order to raise economic indices to the pre-crisis and higher level.
“We also discussed issues on donors for Tajikistan,” said Ms. Dixon, “We, in particular, pointed out that development of the poverty reduction support strategy will finish at the beginning of the next year. We also considered the progress of implementation of the existing projects.”
Asked about prospects of Tajikistan’s cooperation with the World Bank and other international financial institutions, Ms. Dixon said that the cooperation was “very good.” She noted that all resources provided to Tajikistan were being drawn.
“We also discussed the plan of actions that would help reform the country’s economy and increase the volume of funds provided to the country,” the regional director said.
