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sustainable national development 2 . Following the PAR Strategy, a
new public administration system for the country was adopted 3 ,
and work on reorganizing public entities and institutions began.
Country
context
A small, landlocked nation with a population of about 7.2 million,
Tajikistan is one of the world’s least accessible countries. Its high,
mountainous terrain and remoteness are compounded by a
lack of infrastructure and a weak governance and regulatory
framework. These are significant barriers to external trade,
connectivity, and investment. It remains the poorest of the
countries that emerged from the former Soviet Union and its
fragile economy, still heavily reliant on agriculture, aluminium,
and hydroelectric power – as well as on its neighbours, especially
Uzbekistan, for international trade and transit – is vulnerable to
unexpected shocks, such as the severe 2007-08 winter, the 2007
upsurge in world food and fuel prices, and, more recently, the
global economic crisis. Its post-independence five-year civil war
(1992-97) resulted in significant economic and human losses
amounting to an estimated 60 percent of GDP, and up to 50,000
deaths, and greatly complicated its initial economic transition.
Tajikistan is a presidential republic, with a bicameral legislature.
The heavily centralized country is led by the President, Imomali
Rahmon. The People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan, led by the
President, won the February 2010 general election with 71.04
percent of the vote, and controls both houses. Real power
is concentrated in the executive rather than the legislative
branch of government. The role of civil society in politics, policy
development, and decision-making processes remains weak.
The public sector is also weak. Many public institutions are
inefficient, lacking accountability and transparency in financial
management and internal controls. The systems, procedures, and
capacity to fight corruption are frail, and the legal and regulatory
frameworks remain underdeveloped. The government has,
though, attempted to deal with these deficiencies. In March
2006, it adopted the Public Administration Reform Strategy
of the Republic of Tajikistan 1 (2005-2015), whose goal was to
develop an effective public administration system as a basis for
Corruption remains one of the most serious problems for
Tajikistan. One of the first steps taken to address the issue
was the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Plan, adopted in Istanbul in
2003 4 . The government developed the National Anti-Corruption
Strategy, 2008 – 2012, as a nationwide anti-corruption plan. The
State Committee on Financial Control and Fighting Corruption 5
is responsible for implementing the anti-corruption measures.
Socio-economic trends and developments
Tajikistan’s macroeconomic performance has improved steadily
in recent years. It has seen GDP grow at 8 percent annually,
declining inflation, greater fiscal discipline, and a manageable
external debt. Growth was fuelled mainly by high world prices
for aluminium and cotton, Tajikistan’s principal exports, and by
remittances. 6 The economy is gradually diversifying, and this is
reflected, inter alia, in the much smaller share of aluminium and
cotton in value added products 7 , and an increase in the output
of non-traditional products. But Tajikistan remains the poorest
of the former Soviet Union republics, with income per capita
reaching just US$2,020 in 2010 8 . It has made progress in terms
of enabling the business environment 9 , but efforts are still far
below those of neighbouring countries 10 . Poverty has declined
since 1999 (from 72.4 percent in 2003 to 46.7 percent in 2009 11 ),
but still remains high. About 53 percent of the population,
rising to 70 percent in isolated rural and mountainous areas,
lives below the poverty line 12 .
1
Approved by Presidential Decree No. 1713 on 15 March 2006.
2
Specific objectives are to i) Increase effectiveness of the national development
management: ii) Improve public administration in line with the market economy
principles; iii) Increase effectiveness of the public finance management; iv) Form
modern professional civil service; v) Develop administrative and territorial management;
vi) Form local self-governance capable to provide qualitative services to
the population.
3
Presidential Decree 541 (September 2008).
4
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/51/3/37228458.pdf Last access: 26 April
2011. In particular, the Istanbul Action Plan of the ACN creates a peer review
mechanism for a group of ex-Soviet countries. Tajikistan made its first status
report to the group in January 2004, and remains committed to implement
the resulting 21 recommendations.
5
Signed by the President on 24 January 2008.
6
Remittances rose from $82 million (5% of GDP) in 2003 to $2.6 billion (50%
of GDP) in 2008.
7
10% in 2006 compared to 30% in 2000.
8
Compared for example with USD 2291 Kyrgyzstan and 3,084 Uzbekistan for
more details ref. to: http://hdrstats.undp.org/images/explanations/TJK.pdf
Last access: 26 April 2011.
9
World Bank’s Doing Business 2011 report showed improvement from 149 in
2010 to 139 in 2011.
10
For example: Kazakhstan (59) and the Kyrgyz Republic (44).
11
MDG Progress Report.
12
Projections based on World Bank. 2008. Tajikistan Living Standards Measurement
Survey, 2008. Washington, DC.
11