DUSHANBE, September 18, 2013, Asia-Plus -- Tajikistan has done a lot for development of transit potential in Central Asia.

Tajik First Deputy Prime Minister, Matloubkhon Davlatov, stated this here on September 18 while delivering a statement at the international high-level conference on development of road transport and transit potential in Central Asia for period up to 2020.

“Coming out of the transportation isolation is one of the strategic tasks of the Tajik government and we have made a considerable progress on this issue,” said Davlatov.  “Over the past nine years, twenty-three national transport infrastructure development projects for a total amount of 3.2 billion somoni have been implemented in the country: 1,650 kilometers of roads, 109 bridges and 27 kilometers of tunnels have been built.”

Currently, eleven investment transport infrastructure development projects for a total amount of 5.5 billion somoni are being implemented in Tajikistan, Tajik official stressed.

Delegations from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, as well as Lithuania and some international organizations are participating in the conference, which is being held in Dushanbe in the framework of 10th meeting of the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) Intergovernmental Commission session.

TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) is an international transport program involving the European Union and 14 member States of the Eastern European, Caucasian and Central Asian region.  It has a permanent Secretariat, originally financed by the European Commission, in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a regional office in Odessa, Ukraine.  Since 2009 the organization has been entirely financed by member countries.