DUSHANBE, December 1, 2008, Asia-Plus  - President Emomali Rahmon arrived in Doha, Qatar on November 28 to attend the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterey Consensus scheduled for November 29-Decmeber 2.

Friday evening, Tajik leader attended an informal summit of the United Nations in Doha that was held to discuss issues related to the global financial crisis, according to presidential press service.  

On November 29, the follow-up conference opened to assess progress made, reaffirm goals and commitments, share best practices and lessons learned and identify obstacles and constraints encountered, actions and initiatives to overcome them and important measures for further implementation, as well as new challenges and emerging issues.

 Speaking at the conference, President Rahmon noted that “despite negative impact of the global financial crisis, the advanced countries should reaffirm their adherence to priorities of the Monterrey Consensus and take efforts to reduce gap between developed and developing countries and to get over their uneven development.” 

Outlining enhancement of energy sector, including completing of construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power station (HPS), as one of priorities of Tajikistan’s policy, Rahmon noted that if donor countries and organizations support implementation of the energy projects, Tajikistan would be able to export more than 25 billion kWh of electricity to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, India and other countries in the near future.  “It will be a major contribution to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Tajikistan,” he said.  

 Rahmon named removal of obstacles impeding trade and development of regional trade as well as construction of railways and highways among the main ways to mitigate effects of the global financial crisis.  He underlined importance of support of donor countries and international organizations for solution of those issues.  “Developing countries should have an opportunity to influence the process of adoption by international organizations of decisions related to problems facing international community and economic development and make worthy contribution to management of those problems,” Rahmon was cited as saying.  

The same day, a roundtable meeting entitled “Mobilization of Domestic Financial Reserves for Achievement of MDGs”, presided over by President Rahmon, was held in Doha on sidelines of the conference.  The meeting participants included representatives of many countries and international organizations, presidential press service said.