Dushanbe, February 25, 2021 – Today the 21^st Session of the Consultative Council on Improvement of Investment Climate under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan chaired by the Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda of the Republic of Tajikistan took place with participation of the Council members, heads of a number of ministries and agencies, representatives from development partners and the private sector.

The session participants discussed the issues related to the implementation of the decisions adopted at the 20^th Session of the Consultative Council, the outcomes of the industry analysis and exploration of new opportunities for capacity building as well as the items of the agenda for the next session of the Council.

Prime Minister Rasulzoda noted that during the recent years a significant amount of activities on development of entrepreneurship and investments, and improvement of environment therein were accomplished. Particularly, the Tax Committee Single Window for simplified and free registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs was introduced that has been facilitating the simplification and reduction of cost for starting a business, increase in the number of entrepreneurs, and economic engagement of the population overall.

Single Window for export, import and transit transactions, acquisition of permit for construction, development of technical specifications for getting electricity, registration of property, and other latest mechanisms with the use of information technologies were created.

In discussion of the first item of the agenda, Mr Saadi Qodirzoda, Executive Secretary of the Council, Chair of the State Committee for Investment and State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan presented a report on outcomes of the monitoring of implementation of the decisions made at the 20th Session of the Consultative Council. Mr Qodirzoda noted that the Executive Order of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan on Prevention of the Impact of COVID-19 on socio-economic spheres in the Republic of Tajikistan granted a series of incentives, including in the form of tax holidays, public property rental fee exemption, exemption from bank loan interest rates, issuance of soft loans and other preferences to the tourism facilities, hotels, public catering companies, recuperation and sports complexes, sanatoria, and international passenger delivery.

To improve public services, the Ministry of Justice is introducing an electronic system of civil registration and the Legal Portal. At the same time, with a view to increasing the efficiency of state bodies using a wide range of information and communication technologies, a draft Law of the Republic of Tajikistan on Public Services was developed and submitted to the Government for consideration.

It was noted that the Agency for Statistics has introduced 31 types of statistical reports into the electronic system, 3 types of which are statistical reports of entrepreneurs operating in the industry.

Also, as part of the implementation of the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan on Expansion of Cashless Payments through Bank Cards, on September 1, 2020 the Single Window for Registration of Export, Import and Transit Transactions was introduced, a draft national rating of the investment climate was developed, the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan on the Concept of the Organization and Development of Agroindustrial Clusters in the Republic of Tajikistan to 2040 of October 28, 2020, and the Program on Enabling Environment for the Implementation of Best Practices in Agricultural Production, i.e. Global G.A.P international standards was approved.

On the second item of the agenda, Mr Bakhtiyor Sharifi, Principal Deputy Minister of Industry and New Technologies, reported on the outcomes of the Task Force analysis of the state of the country's industry and exploration of new opportunities to increase the industry's capacity for discussion at subsequent sessions of the Council, which was supported by the Council members.

Speaking on the last issue, Mr Saadi Kodirzoda, Executive Secretary of the Council, Chairman of the State Committee on Investments and State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan, proposed three topics to discuss at the next meeting of the Consultative Council, including improvement of the investment and business climate in the field of catering and services in the sector, development of e-commerce, and export analysis and organization of the national system, which was supported by the Council members.

Also, Mr Jan-Peter Olters, the Chairman of the Development Coordination Council, Country Manager of the World Bank in Tajikistan, Ms Sezin Sinanoglu, UN Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan, Mr Bozorali Odina, Member of the Consultative Council, Chairman of the Open Joint Stock Company Kulob Dairy Plant, Mr Abdullo Hasanov, Member of the Advisory Council, Head of the Korvoni Asr LLC, and others participated in the discussions of the agenda.

Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda of the Republic of Tajikistan, emphasized a number of issues, such as achievement of the national strategic goals, including the country’s industrialization, accelerated growth and expansion of industrial production, development of industrial cooperation, effective use of regional advantages in the industry, production of competitive export-oriented and import-substituting products, export of finished goods, the revised Tax Code aimed at supporting entrepreneurship, encouraging investment, corporate governance and other issues.

The Prime Minister also mentioned the measures taken to upgrade the status of the Consultative Council, the responsibility of local authorities for the development of entrepreneurship and investment, strengthening public-private dialogue and partnership in the regions.

At the conclusion of the meeting, relevant guidance were provided to the ministries and departments, the relevant officials, recommendations were made to the development partners on the issues discussed at the session.