Tajikistan Short of Research Capacity
Tajikistan Short of Research Capacity
As Tajikistan joins a virtual community of research and analysis centres from around the former Soviet Union, analysts in the country say the country needs more independent think-tanks.
The internet portal www.epinetwork.org was launched in late June to unite economic policy institutes from the Commonwealth of Independent States and Central and Eastern Europe, the Aziya Plus news agency reported. The website is part of the Central Asian Gateway project and aims to encourage think-tanks to cooperate and increase their capacity.
Bahrom Manonov, the Tajik representative of Central Asian Gateway, says the new portal will ensure active collaboration between different centres, both in one-to-one relationships and as part of collective projects.
The experts polled by NBCentralAsia agreed that Tajikistan lacks world-class think-tanks. Analyst Parviz Mullojanov puts this down to the lack of a market – the business sector, government institutions and the media are not prepared to commission and fund research reports.
The only major think-tank is the Centre for Strategic Studies, a state institution affiliated with the presidential administration. Then there are perhaps ten smaller institutions, attached variously to political parties, non-government organisations and the state.
Abdugani Mamadazimov, head of the Association of Political Scientists, says most researchers work alone.
Hojimuhammad Umarov, who heads the department for macroeconomic studies at the Institute of Economics, which comes under the economy and trade ministry, says the few think-tanks that exist tend to be state-funded. But even they do not cover all the ground – for instance Umarov’s own department has no equivalent that specialises in microeconomic issues.
As this is a poorly remunerated field, there are few new people coming in. Umarov believes one way out of the financial squeeze would be to uncouple think-tanks from the state to enable them to seek commercial consultancy contracts.
Saifullo Safarov, deputy director of the Centre for Strategic Studies, agrees that there is a need for more independent think-tanks. But he says they would need to come up with solutions rather than just pick subjects apart. At the moment, most of these institutions do not live up to the name, he says, describing them as “information analysts” who glean and process material from other experts, academics and politicians.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
The internet portal www.epinetwork.org was launched in late June to unite economic policy institutes from the Commonwealth of Independent States and Central and Eastern Europe, the Aziya Plus news agency reported. The website is part of the Central Asian Gateway project and aims to encourage think-tanks to cooperate and increase their capacity.
Bahrom Manonov, the Tajik representative of Central Asian Gateway, says the new portal will ensure active collaboration between different centres, both in one-to-one relationships and as part of collective projects.
The experts polled by NBCentralAsia agreed that Tajikistan lacks world-class think-tanks. Analyst Parviz Mullojanov puts this down to the lack of a market – the business sector, government institutions and the media are not prepared to commission and fund research reports.
The only major think-tank is the Centre for Strategic Studies, a state institution affiliated with the presidential administration. Then there are perhaps ten smaller institutions, attached variously to political parties, non-government organisations and the state.
Abdugani Mamadazimov, head of the Association of Political Scientists, says most researchers work alone.
Hojimuhammad Umarov, who heads the department for macroeconomic studies at the Institute of Economics, which comes under the economy and trade ministry, says the few think-tanks that exist tend to be state-funded. But even they do not cover all the ground – for instance Umarov’s own department has no equivalent that specialises in microeconomic issues.
As this is a poorly remunerated field, there are few new people coming in. Umarov believes one way out of the financial squeeze would be to uncouple think-tanks from the state to enable them to seek commercial consultancy contracts.
Saifullo Safarov, deputy director of the Centre for Strategic Studies, agrees that there is a need for more independent think-tanks. But he says they would need to come up with solutions rather than just pick subjects apart. At the moment, most of these institutions do not live up to the name, he says, describing them as “information analysts” who glean and process material from other experts, academics and politicians.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
