Since 1995, GTZ has been working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Tajikistan. Cooperation has centred on rebuilding the economy and promoting the drawn-out, frequently interrupted transition process from a centrally planned economy to a competitive social market system. During the Soviet era, Tajikistan had the lowest per capita income and hence received the largest financial transfer payments from Moscow. The country was dependent on food imports from other Soviet republics, supplying them with raw cotton and aluminium in return.

The discontinuation of these transfer payments and subsidised imports, the break-up of traditional trading relations and a five-year civil war after independence had disastrous effects on the country’s already weak economy. Aluminium and cotton are still Tajikistan’s main exports. Other industries, including light engineering, construction industry and services, are only just beginning to develop and are slowly gaining in importance.

The country is dependent on international financial aid. The civil war and its consequences caused a large number of scientific and technical experts of German and Russian origin to leave the country.

In the meantime, the focus of Technical Cooperation has shifted to a reform of the basic education system and support for economic reforms. Rural areas, home to more than 70 percent of the population, suffer far more from poverty than urban centres. Today, some three quarters of the population live below the poverty line. Supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the Government has developed a poverty reduction strategy that acknowledges the country’s stability as the fundamental pillar.

GTZ has maintained a coordination office in Dushanbe since 1996.