On Thursday March 9, Mr. Hajime Kitaoka, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Tajikistan, signed Exchange of notes for two infrastructure development projects in Dushanbe with Mr. Sirojiddin Aslov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, and for a project on strengthening health sector and empowering women in Tajikistan with Ms. Mieko Yabuta, Country Director of UNFPA Tajikistan.  

According to Japan’s Embassy in Dushanbe, the Government of Japan provided the grant aid worth of 3.09 million US dollars for implementation of the second phase of the Project for Improvement of Dushanbe International Airport.  Within the second phase the exterior works of the terminal building should be completed.  In general, the project reportedly aimed at installment of several types of the equipment ensuring safe landing of the aircrafts and construction of the new building for cargo terminal as well as equipping it.

For implementation of the Project for Improvement of Substations in Dushanbe the grant amount up to 19 million US dollars was provided in order to improve sustainability and efficiency of power supply in Dushanbe city through rehabilitation of the Promyshlennaya substation and construction of new Radiostantsiya substation.

The Government of Japan also made significant contribution to the project for “Strengthening National Family Planning Services” by providing 1.7 million US dollars out of 2.7 million of the total cost, Japan’s Embassy said.  Through this project UNFPA Tajikistan will strengthen the national family planning program, supply of contraceptive resources to the country and expansion of public access to modern family planning service.

During the ceremony, Ambassador Kitaoka noted that with the combination of these three projects, Japan definitely could make another significant contribution to the further development of its important friend, Tajikistan.

This year, Japan and Tajikistan celebrated 25th anniversary since establishment of diplomatic relations.  Within this period the cooperation between Japan and Tajikistan has made considerable progress and strengthened.  During 2016 Japanese fiscal year, Japan and Tajikistan signed grant projects (including projects on technical cooperation) on the amount of 5.6 billion Japanese Yen.  With the beginning of the above-mentioned project Japan’s Official Development Assistance will accelerate even more.