Русский
Russia’s Rosatom has presented an investment project to Tajikistan to build renewable energy facilities with capacity of up to 1 GW. The project was discussed during meetings between Russia’s trade mission in Tajikistan, Rosatom Renewable Energy and Tajikistan’s Energy and Water Resources Ministry.
Tajik Deputy Energy Minister Manuchehr Safarzoda said his country has huge potential for developing electricity generation. “Construction of wind power facilities will make a contribution to the diversification of the national energy portfolio and create new competencies locally. I’m confident that cooperation with Rosatom is an important step in strengthening the country’s sovereign energy balance.”
The parties agreed to sign a memorandum on working out and implementing the investment project.
Trade
Tajikistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russia is Tajikistan’s largest trade partner, accounting for 26.7% of the country’s total trade. This has also been increasing, hitting a record US$1.1 billion in the first seven months of 2024, representing a 12.1% increase over 2023.
One of the major reasons behind the increase in trade between Russia and Tajikistan has been the effects of Western sanctions on Russia and its sourcing businesses looking for alternative suppliers and buyers across the CIS countries. The Ukraine conflict has significantly boosted the trade dynamic. There is great potential in the interaction at the regional level between Tajikistan and Russia. For instance, more than 100 Russian regional commercial chambers have partnership agreements with the Tajik Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In the past 18 months, delegations from 15 Russian regions have paid business visits to the Central Asian country via the Tajik Chamber. In 2023, Tajikistan increased its exports of high-tech products to Russia by more than 50%. In the first quarter of 2023, Tajikistan exported to Russia goods worth about US$7.4 million, which include communication equipment, air-cleaning equipment, computer and block equipment, transistors, and electric batteries.
When it comes to imports from Tajikistan, Russia is interested in the supply of zinc ores, fruits, fats and oils of animal or vegetable origin, and clothing. Meanwhile, Russian exports include agricultural products, ferrous metals, vehicles, chemicals, mineral fuels, wood & timber.
Moreover, Russia has already also significantly increased the export of sawn timber to Tajikistan. For instance, in 2023, the supply of Russian timber to Tajikistan increased by 1.4 times. Tajikistan is highly dependent on Russia in some of the key trade products important to the operation of various industries: more than 50% of Tajikistan’s needs in fuels and lubricants, wood, oils, and various food products are supplied from Russia.
Another critical area of Russia-Tajikistan relations is the Tajik expatriate workers’ community in Russia. In 2022, Tajik nationals were the second (after Uzbeks) biggest foreign working group in Russia. The numbers are significant for the Tajik economy, in 2021 alone, 768,727 Tajik citizens obtained documents for labour activity in Russia, contributing approximately US$900 million to the Russian budget. Money transfers from Russia to Tajikistan amounted to US$1.795 billion equivalent, with 94% of this was transferred in Rubles.
The trade ties therefore have not yet reached optimum levels, meaning there is room for growth. This explains Moscow’s push to bring Dushanbe over into Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and portray the grouping as a vehicle for closer trade and investment ties. This was discussed during the June visit by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Dushanbe. Tajikistan, along with Turkmenistan, remains the only Central Asian country, which has no link to EAEU. Moscow’s expectation is that the potential boosting of ties could serve as a good opportunity for Tajikistan to enhance ties with member countries of EAEU and realize what Uzbekistan has enjoyed from 2020 – observer status within the bloc. The development of clean energy investments into Tajikistan by Russia will be a stepping stone towards achieving this goal.
Further Reading
