"Cooperation between the regions of Russia and Tajikistan is fundamentally important for the expansion of trade and economic relations of the two countries", said the Head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin at the plenary session of the Seventh Conference on Interregional Cooperation.
“At the moment, 60 regions actively support trade and economic relations with Tajikistan. There are more than 70 agreements and memorandums in force. This cooperation will, indeed, be continued and intensified in future. The results are already now, but we need to move on so that the economies of Russia and Tajikistan are linked even more closely”, said the Minister.
He notes that Russia holds the position of the leading trading partner of Dushanbe for 11 years, and last year its share in the foreign trade turnover of the republic exceeded 24%. At the same time, imports from Tajikistan in 2018 increased by a record 75%. "Such dynamics is very important for bilateral relations", emphasized Maxim Oreshkin.
He also focused on high interest of Russian investors to Tajik partners. Thus, the volume of accumulated investments from Russia as at January 1 this year amounted to about 1.6 billion dollars.
Significant work is performed also in the field of removing trade barriers. “Everything that we do, including “green corridors” or rail transportation tariffs, all that is aimed to reduce barriers between our countries. This will help us to take part in the supply of those goods that are in Tajikistan”, said the Head of the Ministry of Economic Development.
He also highlighted the importance of humanitarian cooperation. Particularly, in the Minister's view, the project of sending Russian teachers to work at schools of the Republic has a substantial potential.
In 2018, the trade turnover between the countries increased by 24.2% and reached 894 million dollars. The main of Russian export items are mineral products, machinery and equipment. Textiles, food commodities and agricultural raw materials are exported from Tajikistan to Russian markets.