The meeting took place within the framework of the official visit of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon to the Russian Federation.
M.Mishustin: Dear Emomali Sharipovich! I am sincerely glad to meet you again. Welcome to Government House of the Russian Federation.
I warmly recall the conversation with you in March, during my visit to Dushanbe. And I ask you to take this opportunity to convey my best wishes to my colleague, Prime Minister of Tajikistan Mr. Kohir Rasulzoda. As well as the Chairman of the upper house of Parliament, the Mayor of Dushanbe Rustam Emomali.
Your talks with President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Through the Government, we will ensure the prompt implementation of all agreements that were reached at the highest level.
We sincerely value the friendly partnership and allied relations that bind Russia and Tajikistan. They are based on the principles of friendship, good neighborliness and mutual respect. We pay priority attention to deepening practical cooperation. Russia is among the leading foreign economic partners of Tajikistan. In January – September, the mutual trade turnover exceeded 90 billion rubles, or 10 billion Tajik somoni.
Investment cooperation is actively developing. The volume of Russian investments in the economy of Tajikistan exceeded 148 billion rubles. And a new impetus to joint work was given by the business forum that took place in March in Dushanbe.
Russian business is interested in promoting new joint projects in energy, industry, tourism, agriculture, and other areas. Our intergovernmental commission is engaged in solving intergovernmental issues. On the part of the Russian Government, it is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Shakirzyanovich Khusnullin.
We attach great importance to the expansion of our interregional cooperation. More than 70 regions of Russia maintain direct business contacts with the regions of Tajikistan. Among the leaders are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Altai Krai, Astrakhan, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk region.
The peoples of our countries are united by common cultural and humanitarian ties. The Days of Russian Culture were successfully held in Tajikistan in July, and the Days of Russian Cinema were held in October.
We are expanding our cooperation in the field of education. More than 35 thousand students from Tajikistan study in Russia, including about 900 places according to the government quota. Russian and we are sincerely grateful to you, dear Emomali Sharipovich, for your attentive attitude to the Russian language in Tajikistan. Russian-language schools have become a new symbol of our friendship. Last September, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and you, dear Emomali Sharipovich, took part in their opening. And in March of this year I personally visited one of the schools named after Yuri Gagarin, it’s just wonderful.
Dear Emomali Sharipovich, we have a big program.
Please, you have the floor.
E.Rakhmon: Dear Mikhail Vladimirovich!
I am glad to see you again.
During your visit to Dushanbe, a confidential dialogue took place between us.
The Russian Federation is our strategic and reliable partner.
One of the important areas of our bilateral cooperation, of course, is the trade component. Last year, the volume of mutual trade turnover amounted to $ 1.7 billion. This indicator increased by 24% compared to the year before last.
In the first nine months of this year, the volume of mutual trade reached more than $ 1.2 billion. In the total volume of Tajikistan’s foreign trade turnover, Russia has been in first place for many years.
As for investments, their volume still does not reflect the potential that the parties have. We believe that there are huge untapped reserves in both trade and economic and investment areas. We should take the necessary measures to use them more fully.
During our previous meeting in March of this year, you noted the importance of resolving the issue of the Tajik side’s debt to EXIAR in order to increase Russian investment in our economy.
On my instructions, this issue has been resolved. Thus, the barrier to a significant increase in the volume of investments from Russia in Tadjikistan.
The Tajik side has sent more than 90 priority investment projects to the Russian side for the purpose of studying and practical elaboration.
By joint efforts, we need to create joint industrial enterprises using raw materials existing in Tajikistan, affordable electricity and skilled labor.
There are huge opportunities in our countries for the implementation of joint investment projects in the field of industrial cooperation. In this regard, we ask you to take under your personal control the work in this direction.
We are interested in implementing joint projects in such industries as mining, metallurgy, defense, oil refining and chemical. Separately, I would like to mention the food and light industries, especially textiles, as well as the electrical, pharmaceutical industries and the production of building materials.
We have sufficient reserves of raw materials for this. More than 600 large deposits of silver, gold, iron, lead, antimony, coal, salt, precious stones, as well as 200 natural resources for aerospace and other strategic industries have been explored in the region. So we can work in this direction. Of these, more than 100 deposits are already in development, and about 50 types of mineral raw materials are being extracted. The explored subsoil of Tajikistan also contains critically important mineral resources. We invite Russian business to cooperate in their development.
It is also important to intensify cooperation on the creation of industrial parks based on former Soviet industries. In these matters, we hope for technical and financial support from the Russian side.
Many people have such an idea that Tajikistan is an agrarian backward republic. Meanwhile, Tajikistan has invested a lot in uranium production in the past. And we are still working with Russia to bury these vaults.
And there are a lot of deposits, now the market is very large, although it used to be secret.
One of the most relevant areas of our industrial cooperation, of course, is the textile and food industries.
Mutually beneficial is the industrial processing of agricultural products of Tajikistan with subsequent export to Russia. There are positive developments in this direction. To date, the BTK Group company intends to create a textile cluster on the territory of the Kulyab free economic zone.
An important area of cooperation between our countries is the energy industry. The construction and operation of the Sangtuda HPP-1 is a vivid example of effective and fruitful cooperation between our countries.
A source: http://government.ru/news/50173/
