Your Excellency, Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Azim Ibrohim,

Chariman of Khatlon oblast Mr. Kurbon Hakimzoda

Representative of private sector,

Representative from Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

Distinguished participants, partners and friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Very pleased to be in beautiful Kulyab. I would like to thank our partners in the Government of Tajikistan and particularly in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, for proactive leadership in driving this agenda and for the excellent cooperation with UNDP and other development partners in this sphere.

We are meeting at a time of many favorable changes for the region and Tajikistan; the regional trade and economic collaboration are gathering momentum, creating a unique window of opportunity for transforming Tajikistan’s economy. As we all know very well, the National Development Strategy envisages the shift of economic development paradigm for Tajikistan from agrarian economic to industrial-agrarian pathway in the next 10 years. This ambitious goal requires strengthening capacity of the domestic private sector, development of value-chains for export-oriented products, fostering favourable conditions as well as local knowledge and expertise for FDI attraction, and bringing innovative technologies. This development vision is aligned with the global Sustainable Development Agenda and particularly pursue the Goals 8, 9 and 17, which put a special emphasis on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, industrialization, innovative development and fair trade.

The experience of many countries across the world confirms that promotion of special economic zones with special tax and customs regimes can bring evident benefits for the country’s economic growth and sustainable development. In the context of Tajikistan the Free Economic Zones are being promoted by the Government as a tool for industrialization and supporting underdeveloped regions. With an overarching goal of attracting new investors, the successful operation of free economic zones may bring a lot of direct and indirect benefits including an influx of innovations and modern technologies, developing transport and communication infrastructure, creating new job places, diversification of local economies and strengthening competitiveness of the country in general.

Tajikistan has managed to achieve noteworthy progress; nowadays more than 70 national and foreign companies successfully operate now in free economic zones. However, in view of increasing competition in the regional and global markets, significant efforts should be directed to continuous improvement of business opportunities and services in the FEZs, privileges, awareness raising and marketing.

For the past few years UNDP, jointly with other partners, has been supporting the Government of Tajikistan to boost the free economic zones potential. UNDP was part of consultative process for improvement and development of legislation for FEZ; support was provided to MEDT to introducing the new forms of administrating of FEZs, in order to engage the private sector in management of zones and to reduce the existing barriers for investments attraction.

Adoption of the new Law on Free Economic Zones in January 2019 is a remarkable milestone achieved by the country in this direction and our joint task will be to operationalize this law implementation.

UNDP also invested in building capacity of FEZ staff on management improvement, methods to attract new investors, services to FEZ clients (e.g. logistical centers, educational institutions, etc) and happy to note that during 2015-2017 improvements in management of FEZs led to doubling the number of companies in the FEZs, which is resulted in new jobs and 24% increase in production.

UNDP organized a number of the study visits to the advanced foreign Free Economic Zones, thus helping national experts to familiarize with best international practices and knowledge. As a result, new forms of FEZ administration and new services were introduced.

It is obvious that Tajik economy is still facing a lot of challenges, which are also affecting the potential of existing FEZ. The Government of Tajikistan started the revision of the tax policies and it is important to ensure transparency and participation of all stakeholders, including hearing the voice of FEZ management and clients.  

UNDP is ready to collaborate with all stakeholders to leverage efforts undertaken by the Government to enhance the potential of Free Economic Zones to boost economy and prosperity of people of Tajikistan.

Thank you!