The decision to give a Chinese company the rights to develop the Akjilga silver deposit located in Murgab district of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) has brought criticism not only social-media users but also from some local experts.
Hojimuhammad Umarov, a Dushanbe-based expert on finance and economy, told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, locally kwon as Radio Ozodi, that Tajikistan should not sign away the exploration rights of its mineral reserves to foreign companies.
“These resources belong to our people and we need these riches for our own future,” he told Radio Ozodi on October 1.
The Akjilga contract has sparked concerns among some Tajik experts since it was signed on June 14 this year in Kulob on the sidelines of an international investment forum.
Many Tajik experts and ordinary people alike have called for transparency in all investment deals that affect the nation’s natural resources.
“With such investments, China makes our country increasingly dependent on it and effectively takes control of our mineral resources,” Dushanbe-based expert Parviz Mullojonov told Radio Ozodi on June 19.
The Akjilga mine adds to neighboring’s China’s growing stake in Tajikistan. China’s mining companies are major stakeholders in Tajikistan’s largest gold mines in the Panjakent, Ayni, and Vahdat districts.
