The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) President Suma Chakrabarti was in Dushanbe on July 1 on a short visit to meet with political leadership and businesses. It was quite a busy day. Mr. Chakrabarti held talks with the President, Frist Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Energy and Water Resources and Head of the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest). During his visit, EBRD president also met with editor-in-chief of Asia-Plus to tell our readers about the results of his visit.
It is important for the president to form a good team”
Q. Let's imagine for a moment that you are appointed advisor to the Tajik president for economic matters. What would be your first five advices you would give to the head of our state?
- Frist piece of advice -- it is always very important to have a reliable macroeconomic policy. During several years, Tajikistan has shown very good economic growth indicators, but the fiscal situation, or you can say the budgetary one is not so good, and therefore, I would advise the Government of Tajikistan to work with international institutions in this direction.
- Second piece of advice – it is very important for Tajikistan to improve its investment climate. Of course, we and the Government of Tajikistan are jointly working with the private sector; however, it is necessary to identify exactly what changes are needed to improve the investment climate in the country.
- Thirdly, Tajikistan needs several striking and successful examples of work of foreign investors in the country. There are many small and medium-sized enterprises in Tajikistan investors of which are local businesspeople. It is good, but I think we need two or three striking examples of strategic investors in order to ensure trust of other investors and inflow of foreign investments into the country.
- The fourth question to which I would pay attention is basic services the public needs. The population needs access to safe drinking water, sewerage system, heating system, public transport.
- Fifthly, it is important to form a good team. I think the president is already doing this, but it is important that this team will work well and implement all scheduled projects.
Read the full text of the interview in Asia-Plus newspaper
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