Tajik and Kyrgyz entrepreneurs have declared for expansion of cross-border trade.
35 representatives of border communities from Tajikistan’s Isfara district and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken district met in the Tajik northern city of Isfara on April 12 to discuss ways to promote expansion of the cross-border trade between the regions.
The meeting that was organized under support of the UNDP project, Aid for Trade in Central Asia, discussed state of economic cooperation between border villages and ways to revive trade ties between the border areas of the two countries.
The meeting participants, in particular, noted that the cross-border trade could become a bridge to restore confidence between border communities of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Recall, skirmishes have sparked between residents of Isfara and Batken districts along the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border.
The area at the focus of those skirmishes lies on the jagged frontier where the east of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province meet.
The two countries have been unable to agree on the location of the border they inherited when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. As the population in the dense Ferghana Valley grows, it has become increasingly difficult to demarcate the contested sections, where valuable agricultural land often lies.
