On January 20, 2012 a Round table on “Consultative Council on Improvement of Investment Climate under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan - as an instrument to facilitate open dialogue between state and private sectors” had been conducted in Dushanbe.
Representatives of the State Committee on Investments and State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan, Secretariat of the Consultative Council on Improvement of Investment Climate under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, representatives of the private sector and development partners of Tajikistan took part in the round table.
Manzura Mahkamova- Deputy Chairman of the State Committee on Investments and State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan opened the round table, introduced the new Head of Secretariat of the Consultative Council on Improvement of Investment Climate under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan – Zavkijon Zavkiev to the attendants and expressed confidence that with an appointment of the new Head of the Secretariat the Council’s activity will reach qualitatively new level.
Then, the Head of the Secretariat Zavkijon Zavkiev made a presentation about the main achievements of the Consultative Council in the last year and mentioned that the purpose of the round table is presentation of the results of activity of the Consultative Council and Secretariat in the last year and future plans with a glance of determination of the main directions of mutually beneficial cooperation with the government, private sector and development partners of Tajikistan.
At the same time, he noted that under the leadership of the Chairman of the Consultative Council, the President of the Republic of Tajikistan – H.E. Emomali Rahmon, the Council has achieved a number of progresses in 2011, including adoption of the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan “On Permission”, “State Program on strengthening of export potential for fruits and vegetables’ processing for 2011 – 2012”, “Program for support of construction organizations on improvement of investment climate in the construction sector for 2012 – 2014”, “Plan of future measures of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan on adoption of informational and communication technologies for enhancement of state management” and other regulations and legal documents, which promote improvement of the entrepreneurial activity and private sector development and elimination of the administrative obstacles.
Another progress of the Council is exemption of the equipment and production technologies which are imported into the republic through leasing from value-added tax and customs duties that had not been resolved during last years. In this connection, in accordance with the protocol of the 8th session of the Council the drafts laws of the Republic of Tajikistan “On introducing changes and ammendments to the Tax Code of the Republic of Tajikistan” and “On introducing changes and ammendments to the Customs Code of the Republic of Tajikistan” were adopted by the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan.
During four years of its activity, the Consultative Council had passed through the levels of formation and reinforcement of its position and had been able to provide a dialogue between the state and private sector at a high level and transformed it into the regular and effective dialogue. At the present, this dialogue also is developing and regional councils on improvement of investment climate and entrepreneurship established in administration offices of governers of provinces.
In spite of achievements there are still problems in improvement of the investment climate and entrepreneurship. The Council is planning to speed up the course of the necessary reforms in order to promote their implementation.
On these grounds, the Strategy of Strengtening Activity of the Secretariat of the Consultative Council on Improvement of Investment Climate under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan in the medium term was presented to participants by the Head of the Council’s Secretariat – Zavkijon Zavkiev.
This Strategy was developed on basis of the private sector’s proposals. It pays a special attention to simplification of the taxation system and statistical reports, cancellation of groundless inspections, strengtening of partnership between the government and private sector, access to long-term credits with low interest rates.
Main purpose of the Strategy includes strengthening activities of of the Council and its Secretariat, cooperation with partners (private sector, government and development partners) and the regional Councils.
Then, the Head of the Representative Office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Tajikistan Mr. Ulf Hindstrom on behalf of the development partners and Head of the Association of Constructors of Tajikistan Mr. Faizali Rajabov on behalf of the private sector made speeches and evaluated the Council’s activity in the last year as satisfactory.
Partners had discussions about the issues considered in the course of the round table’s session and made interesting proposals, including representatives of the private sector Muhabbatov Mufarrah – Director of Co Ltd “Rukhom”, Saidov Zaid – Head of the Association of entrepreneurs and producers, Kodirov Mirali – Deputy Director of the Center for support and entrepreneurship development of Dushanbe, Sharipov Takdir – Deputy Head of the Association of entrepreneurs and exporters, Eduard Auer – Head of the Representative office of the European Union in Tajikistan, Hartvig Ungetum – Project Manager of GIZ and others expressed their opinion about the problems in the sphere of processing of mines, including gold and precious stones and production of final products inside the republic, problems connected with complication of the tax system, groundless inspections and other everyday issues of the development of entrepreneurship and improvement of the investment climate, and got answers to their questions by the Head of the Secretariat Zavkijon Zavkiev.
Participants expressed their expectations that implementation of this Strategy will assist to resolve problems of the private sector.
