Tajikistan is in the fourth place among post-Soviet republic in terms of road infrastructure.
The World Economic Forum (MEF)’s Global Competitiveness Index 2018 evaluates the infrastructure of the 137 world economics on various measures, including quality of roads.
Tajikistan with a quality score of 4.1 ranks 41st among the 137 world economies in terms of quality of roads.
Azerbaijan (36th) tops the former Soviet republics in terms of road infrastructure. It is followed by Lithuania (37th) and Estonia (38th).
Georgia ranks 82nd in terms of quality of roads, Armenia — 85th, Latvia – 107th, Russia – 114th, Kazakhstan – 115th, Kyrgyzstan – 122nd, Moldova – 128th, and Ukraine 130th.
WEF did not provide information about the roads Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Road infrastructure is an important factor for the productivity, safety and satisfaction in a country. Roads are used daily for a variety of reasons, and in order to build and maintain roads, costs are often high for the government. A poor road quality could also lead to potential accidents and carelessness.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) shows that well-developed infrastructure is a critical factor underpinning economic growth and strength.
It is to be noted that practically all the road infrastructure has been reconstructed in Tajikistan during the years of independence, except the roads in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). The roads in GBAO had been built in the Soviet era and they are currently in a very poor state and they have not been reconstructed so far. WEF experts probably did not take them into consideration while evaluating the road infrastructure of Tajikistan.
