Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament has adopted Tajikistan’s National Development Strategy 2016-2030.

A regular sitting of the Majlisi Namoyandagon, presided over by its head, Shukurjon Zuhurov, was held on December 1.

Presenting the Strategy to lawmakers, the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Nematullo Hikmatullozoda, noted that the document aimed to provide energy security and bring the country out of transport deadlock.

According to him, 118.1 billion U.S. dollars are expected to be attracted for implementation of the National Development Strategy 2016-2030.

“The document also provides for reducing the poverty rate in the country twice by 20130 (in 2015, the poverty rate in Tajikistan stood at 31 percent),” Hikmatullozoda said, noting that the country’s middle class will rise over the report period from current 22 percent to 50 percent. 

Middle class includes individuals who fall between the working class and the upper class within a societal hierarchy.  Persons in the middle class tend to have a higher proportion of college degrees than those in the working class, have more income available for consumption and may own property. Those in the middle class often are employed as professionals, managers and civil servants.

Meanwhile, the priorities of the government’s National Development Strategy 2016–2030 are energy security and efficient use of energy, improved communications and reposition as a transit country, food security, nutrition and improve public access to quality food, and creation of jobs through increased private investment, economic diversification, and competitiveness.

Three medium term development programs will be sequenced, with the first phase covering 2016–2020, where strategic directions will include developing an institutional support system, improving the business environment for private sector development, and increasing human capital productivity.  The second phase (2021–2025) is planned for rapid growth of investments; while the third phase (2026–2030) is projected to mark the transition from industrialized growth strategies to diversified production and knowledge-based innovation.