DUSHANBE, August 25, 2009, Asia-Plus — 40 million U.S. dollars disbursed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to Tajikistan under the Crisis Recovery Support Program Grant will be spent for three categories of expenses, Mr. Makoto Ojiro, ADB”s Country Director for Tajikistan, said in an interview with Asia-Plus on August 20.
According to him, these funds will be spent, in particular, for implementation of the program for employment of labor migrants returning home from Russia and Kazakhstan, the program for social protection of the vulnerable groups of the population and social services for the vulnerable groups, as well as purchase of foods and medicines for social care, educational and medical facilities.
Mr. Ojiro noted that 64.8 percent of the grant would go to maintaining core spending programs for social services for the vulnerable groups and purchase of foods and medicines for the social care, educational and medical facilities, 33 percent would go to providing social protection to the vulnerable groups, including people with limited opportunities, elderly people and children, and 2.2 percent of the grant would go to maintaining the program for employment of labor migrants that returned home.
Mr. Ojiro noted that that the number of Tajiks returning home is increasing and the government has to provide them with jobs. “I heard that over the first quarter of this year alone, some 100,000 migrants have returned to Tajikistan. It is the third quarter now, and I am sure that the number of migrants returning home is increasing and the government has to provide them with jobs,” the ADB’s country director said.
He also noted that the ADB and the Tajik Government had reached an agreement that Tajik Ministry of Finance (MoF) would send report to the Bank on the use of the grant funds every month. “The bank account of this program was opened at the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) and only the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor and Social Care may use it. We agreed that the Ministry of Finance will provide a monthly report on the funds withdrawn from the account. A month has passed since the program was approved and we are waiting for the report from the Ministry of Finance,” Mr. Ojiro said, pointing to the significance of targeted use of the provided funds.
We will recall that ADB’s Board approved the Crisis Recovery Support Program Grant that was approved by ADB”s Board on July 6 2009 to help Tajikistan sustain critical social spending programs that have been imperiled by the global economic crisis. This program is implemented by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor and Social Care and is expected to be fully used by the end of this year.
Tajikistan joined ADB in 1998, and to date has received total assistance of about $550 million in concessional loans, grants and technical assistance from this institution.
