DUSHANBE, December 13, 2008, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan will experience the global financial crisis effects in early spring of 2009, Ms. Zuhro Mousoyeva, the chairperson of the macroeconomics department within the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT), remarked at a roundtable table meeting, initiated by News Agency Asia-Plus and Tajik Journalists’ Union, in Dushanbe on December 12.
According to her, the country’s export potentials will suffer most from the crisis. “Firstly, the financial crisis will negatively impact prices of the raw materials Tajikistan exports – cotton and aluminum. As a result, receipts to the revenue part of the national budget will see a corresponding decrease,” Mousoyeva said, adding that the country should consider ways to solve the issue of replenishment of the budget already now.
“If capacity of purchasing cotton, which is one of the main items of Tajik exports, declines, we ought to consider the ways of processing the cotton into manufactured good inside the country,” said the expert, “We have our own cotton-ginning factories, but it is necessary to introduce new technologies. It is also necessary to pay proper attention to strengthening of financing of the real sector of the country’s economy.” “Development of textile industry will also create jobs for those migrants who will return home,” she said.
Asked about recommendations of the World Bank to reduce expenses on implementation of large projects, in particular the Roghun hydroelectricity project, Mousoyeva said that the World Bank experts had expressed such an opinion during meetings with the representatives of relevant ministries and organizations. “It is to be noted that financing of these projects was worked out at the beginning of the year or even last year already and the budget has already earmarked funds for implementation of them. Probably, it is necessary to tighten supervision over targeted use of these funds, but it is not real to suspend these projects.”
“We will experience the financial crisis effects starting from February-March, when sowing campaign starts. We now have cotton ready for sale and it is desirable that it is sold already this year until its prices fall. Besides, fuel, seeds and mineral fertilizers are needed for the sowing campaign and all this needs money. Tajikistan is agrarian country, you know, and cotton remains strategic crops, making an important contribution to both the agricultural sector and the national economy. It is also an important source of both export earnings and tax revenue, and therefore we cannot refuse it.”
