Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will hold a traditional meeting with local entrepreneurs and investors in Dushanbe on October 14, which is marked in Tajikistan as the Entrepreneurs Day.
The Consultative Council on Improvement of Investment Climate under the President of Tajikistan has suggested that businesspeople will send their proposals and ideas regarding problems facing the problems and ways of development of entrepreneurship in the country.
The upcoming meeting is expected to focus on issues related investment, development of industry and infrastructure as well as financial and banking sectors.
Tajik entrepreneurs share their thoughts about problems facing them unwillingly and even if anybody of them brings himself to tell his problems, he wishes to remain unnamed.
As a result of our inquiries it turned out that not everyone can run business in Tajikistan freely. Practically all profitable sectors have already been divided among certain circles.
There are “own” and “other’s” businesspeople
Ordinary people are mainly engaged in small and medium-sized trade, running their shops at bazaars that belong to people having significant linkages.
These merchants are forced to share their worthless earnings with representatives of inspecting bodies although they make all official payments in time.
Meanwhile, businesspeople close to the authorities are endlessly granted various benefits and exempted from paying taxes.
As a result, heavy tax burden lies on the shoulders of other entrepreneurs.
Experts note that there ought not to run business in Tajikistan without necessary linkages.
“Even if anybody has managed to achieve success in business on his own, anyway, he will have to bid farewell to his successful business, because they will seize his business and hand it over to “more worthy person.” It is done by means of various simple schemes ranging from elementary administrative pressure to criminal racketeering,” an entrepreneur, who had already lost his business, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
It is time to give up the position of pressure
Nour Safarov, expert on the Tajik economy, says the main problem facing the business sector in Tajikistan is lack of normal confidential relations between the state and business. “The state look at business circles as “losers,” toughening mechanisms of control of and influence on business,” says Safarov. “I think the time has come to look at business as an integral part of society and carry out constructive and positive dialogue with business circles.”
According to him, it is time to give up the position of pressure and create a constructive atmosphere for all citizens living in the country.
“Monopoly [on business] for inner circles is not the best way of development of the country because it may have its own serious social consequences. It is necessary to study experiences of advanced countries,” the expert said.
He also pointed to the necessity of reviewing the country’s tax code and creating more favorable conditions for long-term development of entrepreneurship in the country.
“It would be expedient to carry out economic, investment and commercial analysis of the tax code. It should be predictable from the point of view of the tax policy of medium-term and long-term development. Business needs predictability while money loves silence and stability,” Safarov added.
Another Tajik economic expert, Zulfiqor Ismoiliyon, points out the difficulty of access to financing in Tajikistan. “You can get only short-term loans at high interest rates in our banks (the weighted annual interest rate for short-term loans in Tajikistan is 32 percent – Asia-Plus). This automatically dooms business to collapse,” the expert told Asia-Plus in an interview
Experts see the way out of the situation in strengthening of fight against corruption and various bureaucratic delays. They also pointed to the necessity of the government support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
According to the statistical data from the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property (GosKomInvest), some 300,000 entrepreneurship entities have been registered in Tajikistan.
