Training for Tajik Businessmen

The emergence of a business class is being held back by a lack of awareness about economics and the law, analysts say.



According to an Avesta news agency reports from April 18, the International Finance Corporation and the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme, which is part of the Aga Khan Development Network, have agreed to work together to train businessmen about the way the law works, in particular what to do when they are inspected by official agencies.



Analysts interviewed by NBCentralAsia say ignorance about legal and economic matters is stunting private-sector development in Tajikistan, and small and medium-size businesses, SMEs, are in dire need of education programmes like this.



“Practice shows that especially in mountain areas, most businessmen have no idea about the laws that regulate inspections and often don’t know how to act when these happen,” said an expert with an international organisation that works with SMEs in Tajikistan.



The expert, who did not want to be identified, said his organisation had carried out a survey which showed that most businessmen do not research their market or devise business and marketing plans.



SMEs are a major source of tax revenue in developed countries, but are still at a low level of development in Tajikistan, NBCentralAsia analysts say. It is estimated that small companies account for only seven per cent of production in Tajikistan, whereas in many countries the figure is over 60 per cent.



Economic expert Sodik Ismoilzoda gave the example of the cotton industry, in which the state purchases the product direct from the growers. Although farmers get subsidised land plots, they still often go bankrupt as they are burdened with debt.



A senior official from the ministry of economics and development said that at the moment, there are no mechanisms to facilitate access to loans, reduce bureaucracy and lower the tax barriers for start-up businesses.



“The law must define everything clearly; it must list the number of inspecting agencies and reduce the quantity of licenses - which often duplicate each other – needed to start a business, otherwise this sector is going to remain undeveloped,” he said.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)