The European Union-funded project – Technical Assistance to Support Pension Reform in Tajikistan – and the Tajikistan National University launched a training course today for training officials of the Agency for Social Insurance and Pensions in actuarial science in Dushanbe.
According to the European Union (EU) Delegation to Tajikistan, this is a specially designed foundational course on statistics, demographics and the theory of probability. The course is part of a collaborative effort among the Tajikistan National University (TNU), the Agency for Social Insurance and Pensions (ASIP) and the EU project. The aim of this partnership is to establish an educational program in actuarial science which eventually would lead to trained actuaries in Tajikistan.
The project is working closely with ASIP to develop capacity in the Department of Budget Management and Actuarial Calculations (BMAC) in the area of actuarial analysis and projections. Project actuaries are providing lectures, seminars and discussions to Agency staff in order to make longer-term projections on the financial flows of the pension and social insurance system and move into more complex fields of actuarial science.
The University is offering this specially-designed course to assist ASIP in training its staff on statistical topics, including demography, both for current staff and also for future hires. The University has education material available in both Tajik and Russian languages, has a computer lab and also has the ability to provide educational modules through Webinars.
This current course reportedly introduces the Agency staff members to the theory of Statistics and Demography and practical use of Excel spreadsheets in making calculations. It also covers one of the fundamental topics required to carry out actuarial calculations, which is Probability Theory. By the end of the series of classes, it is expected that the BMAC staff will be able to undertake statistical modelling using Excel to make initial projections of the income and outgo to the pension fund (demonstrating financial stability) based on demographic, economic and financial variables.
The EU project is an integral part of the Human Development Support Programme II (HDSP II) signed by the EU and the Government of Tajikistan (GoT) in October 2014. Pension reform also works best in cooperation and coordination with other programs that the European Union is supporting in promoting further economic and human development in Tajikistan.
The ICON-INSTITUTE of Cologne, Germany, is heading a consortium from the United Kingdom and France implementing the Project which began operations in January 2017. The Project is being implemented in partnership with the Agency for Social Insurance and Pensions (ASIP).
