DUSHANBE


, January 5, Asia-Plus — Large-scale military exercises with practice shoot, dubbed “Frontier-2006”, for servicemen of the Rapid Deployment Force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in

Central Asia

is supposed to be conducted in


Kazakhstan


in May this year, according to information from the Tajik Defense Ministry. 

Battalions of the armed forces of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia making up the CSTO Rapid Deployment Force will participate in the military exercises in Kazakhstan, the source said.  The Asia-Plus refrained from giving further details of the drill, noting, “Participants in the drill may possibly rehearse coordination and interaction in carrying out anti-terrorist missions.”        

Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Mukhtar Altynbayev will be in overall command of the forthcoming war game.    

DUSHANBE


, January 5, Asia-Plus – The Agrarian Party of Tajikistan (APT) does not intend to seek coalition with the People’s Democratic Party (PDPT) to participate in the presidential elections due in November this year, the APT chairman Amir Qaraqulov announced at a briefing in


Dushanbe


today.   

Qaraqulov gave a news conference in connection with article entitled “Tajikistan.  Till the presidential elections it remains…” by leader of Tajikistan’s Social-Democratic Party, Rahmatillo Zoirov, posted on the website

www.centrasia.ru

on December 19, 2005. 

“Nobody, except congress, has the right to determine out political actions,” said Qaraqulov, “The Agrarian Party of Tajikistan as political party intends to determine its position independently, in accordance with its program documents.”

“In the mentioned article, the SDPT leader expresses his opinion and sight of the upcoming presidential elections in Tajikistan and predicts that the Agrarian Party will seek coalition with the PDPT,” Qaraqulov noted.  

“Claims that our party is allegedly the pro-government one is his personal opinion,” said the APT head, “Probably, muddle and vacillation within the SDPT are forcing the party’s leadership to seek moral and financial support from elsewhere rather than from its supporters,” a statement made by the APT leadership says.    

“At present our party is carrying out an active work aimed at creating and strengthening its structures and increase its numbers,” Qaraqulov read out the party’s statement at the news conference.

DUSHANBE


, January 5,

Asia

-Plus – Starting from today,

Asia

-Plus is launching English version of its website

www.asia-plus.tj

.

The English version of the Asia-Plus’ website contains daily news in the same rubrics as the Russian version does, separate articles about Tajikistan published in other media, exchange rates of currencies of Central Asia’s states, weather forecast, as well as information about the Asia-Plus news agency.  

KHUJAND, January 5, Asia-Plus — Last year, 558 traffic accidents were reported in the



northern province


of Sughd, the Sughd traffic police directorate chief, Otabek Rahimov announced at a news conference in Khujand on January 4.    

During the news conference it was noted that 137 people had been killed and almost 600 others had been injured in those 558 accidents in northern


Tajikistan


.   433 traffic accidents were caused by violation of traffic regulations by drivers of private transport, Otabek Rahimov said.  “In total, more than 20,000 cases of violation of traffic regulations were registered last year; of them, 1613 cases are related to driving car in a state of intoxication,” the Sughd traffic police chief said.  

            At present, some 200 traffic police inspectors re working in


Sughd


Province


, who are compelled to work for two after 50-percent redundancy.

“Our efforts are aimed, first of all, at carrying out explanatory and educational work among drivers,” Otabek Rahimov said, calling on representatives from media to actively participate in this process 

DUSHANBE, January 5, Asia-Plus — The European Commission, the European Union’s executive, announced Tuesday [January 3] that it is providing Euro 66 million in assistance to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to help fight poverty and to further enhance regional cooperation.  

According to information from the European Commission’s Office in Tajikistan, this assistance is provided for supporting carrying out of national-level institutional, legal and administrative reforms.  The source has told Asia-Plus that funds will be coming to addressees already this year.

The assistance forms part of a long-term program of the European Union support designed to promote stability, security and economic development in the region.  

DUSHANBE, January 4, Asia-Plus – Compared to 2004 a number of labor migrants from Tajikistan who left the country seeking better employment opportunities in January-November 2005 has reduced, deputy head of the Tajik Migration Service within the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Daler Homidov, has said in his interview with Asia-Plus. 

He says that according to official data, 420,622 Tajiks left the country in 2004 in search of seasonal work, while in January-November last year, 386,616 citizens of Tajikistan left the republic for seasonal work.  According to him, reduction in flow of labor migrants is, first of all, connected with creation of new jobs with good wages in Tajikistan itself.  Homidov also does not ruled out the possibility that reduction in migration flow has also been linked to problems with registration and employment outside the republic.  

The Tajik Migration Service official has also noted that they submitted to the Government the 2006-2010 Migration Development Program for endorsement.   “This Program provides for establishment of information and resource centers for labor migrants in Dushanbe, Gorno Badakhshan, Khatlon and Sughd provinces,” the Asia-Plus interlocutor said.

DUSHANBE


, January 4, Asia-Plus – International conference on investments and privatizations is supposed to be held in


Dushanbe


in the autumn this year.    

The conference is staged by


Tajikistan


’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) under support of the president’s office and government of country.  

According to information from the CCI, the conference is aiming to discuss issues related to the implementation of strategic investment projects in


Tajikistan


, strengthening of economic and scientific-technical ties both in bilateral format and within regional and international organizations.  

The source says the conference is dedicated to promote development trade-economic and investment cooperation, creation of favorable conditions for attraction of foreign investments in the implementation of the main projects, development of commercial, financial-banking system, launch of joint ventures and development of natural resources in the republic.  

It is supposed that senior representatives of chambers of commerce from Asian, African, European and CIS countries, as well as representatives from the Islamic financial institutions, including the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), 1

^st

Islamic Investment Bank and others, will take pat in the conference’s work.    

The source noted that analogous conference was held in


Bahrain


in February 2005.  Representatives from more than 50 countries participated at that conference.  Tajikistan was represented at the Bahrain conference by Sharif Saidov, head of Tajik CCI.