DUSHANBE, April 4, 2013, Asia-Plus – On Thursday April 4, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Mr. Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President for Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank.

According to the Tajik president’s official website, the sides considered issues related to ways to support socioeconomic development of Tajikistan and assessment studies for the Roghun hydroelectricity project.

They reportedly expressed satisfaction with the current level of economic development of the country.

Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for the first two months of this year reportedly stood at 7.2 percent and inflation for the same two-month period stood at 1.1 percent.

The two also discussed implementation of a mid-term “Livelihood Improvement Strategy (LIS) for 2013-2015”, which is the final stage of the National Development Strategy (NDS), as well as ways to create new jobs and prevent negative impact of the global financial and economic crisis.

Rahmon and Basu also exchanged views on other aspects of cooperation between Tajikistan and the World Bank, including promotion of the expansion of regional cooperation in Central Asia.        

Tajikistan’s trust fund portfolio — one of the largest in Europe and Central Asia — remains an important supplement to the resources from the International Development Association (IDA), accounting for about 30 percent of total combined commitments in 2010–12.  The Tajikistan portfolio includes 47 trust-funded operations with US$87 million in commitments.  The active portfolio of the World Bank in Tajikistan currently consists of 14 projects with a net commitment of around US$232.8 million.  The largest share of the portfolio is in agriculture and rural development (27 percent), followed by energy (24 percent), water and sanitation (18 percent), human development – education, health, and social protection (24 percent), the private sector (4 percent), and the public sector (2 percent).