KHUJAND, July 16, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan Development Foundation (TDF) is seriously concerned over a sharp decrease in the number of NGOs after re-registration of international and nongovernmental organizations and public associations. 

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the TDF head Shamsiddin Karimov said that the total number of registered public association had declined from 3,700 to 1,650.  According to him, they are seriously concerned over such a sharp decrease in the number of public associations in the country at this stage of development.

“There were many reasons under which public associations failed to be reregistered with the Ministry of Justice,” said Karimov, “Heads of some NGOs were probably not aware of the reregistration process or information work of the government bodies and international organizations could be not sufficient.”  

According to him, there is an opinion that corruption has allegedly affected the “third sector.  “However, this allegation is unfounded,” the TDF head said, noting that public associations could make serious contribution to tackling socioeconomic problems facing the country.  

We will recall that speaking at a press conference in Dushanbe, the Justice Ministry official Davlat Sulaimonov reported on April 22 that since the introduction in February of a new, more restrictive registration law on international and nongovernmental organizations and public associations, no new group has been approved by the ministry.  Sulaimonov added that although the ministry only rejected one application, submitted by an unidentified international organization, there has been a sharp decrease in the number of registration applications since the new laws took effect.  According to statistics, 27 international organizations failed to meet the new requirements of the reregistration process and the total number of reregistered public associations declined by two-thirds, from 3,130 to 1,400.