DUSHANBE, July 10, 2013, Asia-Plus – On Wednesday July 10, the Government of Tajikistan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank (WB) presented the findings of their eighth Joint Country Portfolio Performance Review at a meeting with government officials, project implementation units, and ADB and World Bank staff.

According to press release issued by ADB’s Tajikistan Resident Mission (TJRM), covering the period of January-December 2012, the Review assessed the performance of the projects funded by both Banks, their relevance, and impact.  Participants also discussed common issues that affect performance of the country portfolio and actions necessary to address them.

The meeting reportedly highlighted that the joint portfolio performance remains stable and satisfactory.

The Review has also shown that the Government and the Banks need to continue efforts to strengthen the institutional capacity of implementing agencies associated with monitoring and evaluation; to maintain and improve the linkage to sector institutional frameworks, incentives, and procurement procedures; as well as to address pending taxation issues.

The Review demonstrated the contribution of the portfolio to the achievement of development results in the energy, health, and transport sectors, and recommended the approach be expanded to other sectors.

The meeting was jointly chaired by Davlatali Saidov, Chairman of the State Committee on Investments and State-owned Property Management, C. C. Yu, ADB’s Country Director for Tajikistan, and Marsha McGraw Olive, World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan.

Joint portfolio reviews have been organized since 2004.

Tajikistan became a member of the World Bank in 1993 and the ADB in 1998.  The total joint ADB-World Bank assistance to Tajikistan stands at $1.605 billion.  This includes $922 million from ADB (57.4%) and $683 million from the World Bank (42.6%), excluding technical assistance and resources mobilized from different Trust Funds.  The ADB portfolio is concentrated primarily in transport, energy, and agriculture, while the World Bank portfolio is largely in agriculture, water, energy, and social sectors.