Speech by the Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, His Excellency Mr. Emomali Rahmon at the Solemn Meeting on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of State Independence

Dear compatriots,
Honorable guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

September 9 is a historical and landmark date and a moment of happiness and high dignity for the ancient, creative and glorious Tajik people, who highly values culture.

The noble people of Tajikistan celebrate the 30th anniversary of their independent, free and beloved country with an overflowing sense of patriotism.

The state independence is the greatest and most sacred blessing, the highest embodiment of the national mentality, pride and patriotism, a symbol of the existence of the ancient nation and independence, the Tajik state nationality, the basis of happiness and a source of pride for the people of Tajikistan.

With a feeling of joy and pride, I sincerely congratulate all the glorious people of Tajikistan, every resident, adults and youngsters, our compatriots living abroad and all of you, honorable participants, on the occasion of this sacred and great historical holiday.

I would like to emphasize that it was not that easy for the glorious Tajik people to achieve this happy day, i.e., the celebration of the 30th anniversary of independence and freedom, and the greatest achievement of this period — peace and tranquility, political stability and national unity.

We all together have gone through deadly threats, incredibly difficult trials and challenges over the past 30 years in order to achieve these happy and victorious moments.

The historical path that the Tajik people went through, especially in the initial years of independence was full of horrors and tragedies, hardships and difficulties, obstacles and barriers.

When our independent country was still making its first steps, traitors to the Tajik nation and enemies of the Tajik state, with the support of their foreign supporters, dragged our country into a whirlpool of acute internal confrontation, and then into the fire of an imposed civil war.

The horrors of the imposed civil war will never be erased from the memory of the Tajik people and will forever be imprinted on the pages of our country’s new history.

All state agencies and institutions were completely paralyzed, and the system of public administration was almost destroyed, the Constitution and other laws were trampled and flouted, an atmosphere of anarchy and violence reigned in the country In those difficult and tragic days.

The greatest tragedy of those days was the threat of the disappearance of the young Tajik State and the disintegration of the Tajik nation.

In such tragic circumstances, the sons of the nation – having recognized the essence of the developments — with a view to extinguishing the flames of war, stopping bloodshed, restoring peace and tranquility, and ensuring public order and the rule of law at the earliest possible, set out to call a session of the only authorized state body in those days – the Supreme Council.

Since the capital of our independent State — Dushanbe was eventually stripped of its constitutional status as a result of unrest and lawlessness, the landmark 16th session of the Supreme Council was held in Khujand.

It was at that session that the first steps were taken and decisions were made to put an end to the bloodshed, establish mutual understanding and ensure peace, and lay the foundation for national reconciliation.

I publicly outlined my views on the state system of Tajikistan and declared that I am a supporter of a democratic, law-based, secular and social state for the first time at this session.

It is worth mentioning that Tajikistan, which had declared itself an independent state, had no state symbols — the flag, national emblem and the national anthem for more than a year.

The life-changing session of the Supreme Council adopted the first state symbol — the Tajik flag, and opened an avenue for drafting and adopting other state symbols and the Constitution. Since those circumstances and independence necessitated constitutional reforms in the country as early as possible, we adopted the Constitution of our independent state, which defined the goals, steps and aspirations of society as well as the state system.

As a result, on 6 November 1994, the people of Tajikistan adopted the first Constitution of the independent Tajikistan by referendum and elected the President of the country.

The people of the country supported and accepted the structure and content of statehood, enshrined in the Constitution, and the history soon proved we have chosen the right pathway.

With the development of society, it became necessary to introduce appropriate amendments and additions to the Constitution.

With that in mind, we introduced amendments and additions to the Constitution in 1999, 2003 and 2016 through a nationwide referendum.

In particular, based on the amendments made in 1999, we created a professional Parliament consisting of two chambers — Majlisi Milli (Upper House) and Majlisi Namoyandagon (Lower House) in the country.

In those days, the top priority tasks of the newly elected state leadership was the restoration of the activity of paralyzed state entities, the return of refugees, the immediate elimination of the threat of hunger, and the reconstruction of destroyed houses, burned-down facilities and buildings.

The closure of manufacturing enterprises, a sharp economic downturn, high unemployment, unprecedented inflation, shrinking government revenues and skyrocketing poverty were the realities of those days.

The industrial production fell three times, and the agricultural one two times as a result of the 1992-1997 civil war.

The government of the country, despite extremely scarce financial resources and economic opportunities, began to take all necessary measures to overcome the issues of those days.

In other words, while fighting and shooting continued in some regions of the country, along with efforts to return refugees, create living conditions and ensure employments, we directed all our efforts to address the issues of restoring the country’s paralyzed and stagnated national economy and Tajikistan entered a period of its development in 2000 only.

It has to be mentioned that at that time already we declared the transition to a market economy and the formation of new economic relations as our main task, and thereby created the basis for the socio-economic development of the country.

To this end, we embarked on a comprehensive reform in all areas to restore, and improve the public administration system, introduce structural changes, diversify the property, create favorable conditions for entrepreneurship and investment, form a national budget, tax and monetary system, develop real sectors of the economy, and undertook a wide range of measures in the social sector.

In this process, we identified energy security, country’s connectivity, and food security as our national strategic goals, which were crucial for the future of Tajikistan.

It is the achievement of these goals and the implementation of the foreseen priorities that made it possible over the past 20 years to ensure the country’s average annual economic growth of 7.5%, to multiply the public budget revenues from TJS 252m in 2000 to TJS 27.6bn in 2021.

The GDP per capita in this period reached from TJS 289 to TJS 9,000 and increased by more than 30 times.

However, I would like to emphasize that these indicators are still unsatisfactory given the current requirements.

During the period of independence, we pursued an independent monetary policy, created our banking system, and introduced our national currency into circulation in 2000 in the country.

The implementation of measures and reforms in the banking sector resulted in creation of various types of financial institutions, which now provide banking services to the population and various sectors of the national economy.

Over the past ten years (2011-2020) alone, these financial institutions issued loans amounting more than TJS 100bn for the development of the national economy, including TJS 45.8bn for industrial entrepreneurship.

Securing macroeconomic stability led to increase in population’s income from TJS one billion in 2000 to TJS 65.4bn in 2020, and the decline of poverty rate from 83% in 1999 to 26.3% in 2019.Thus, over the past 20 years, the poverty rate has declined by more than three times.

During this period, the country’s population increased from 5.5 million to 9.7 million, i.e., more than 1.7 times, its living standards has improved significantly, and the average life expectancy reached 75.1 years.

In 1991, the average life expectancy in the country was 70 years.

The average population growth over these years made 2.1 percent.

During the independence period, we allocated 138,000 hectares of land for 1.4 million families for the construction of residential buildings.

Thus, more than 8,8m of our citizens got an opportunity to improve their residential conditions.

(Side note: the average family consists of 6.3 persons in our country).

Let me recall that in 70 years of the pre-independence period, the population was allocated 77,000 hectares of land only.

Over the past twenty years, i.e., since 2001, we mobilized more than TJS 150bn of foreign investments, including TJS 59bn of foreign direct investments to various socio-economic areas of the country.

During the mentioned period, we implemented more than 1,000 public investment projects especially in social spheres, including education and healthcare, as well as in energy, transport, water supply and other sectors by mobilizing foreign investments totaling more than TJS 91bn. Currently, 74 public investment projects with the total amount of TJS 40.5bn are under implementation.

According to international assessments, over the past ten years, Tajikistan has ranked four times among the top ten reformers in the world in terms of development of entrepreneurship and investment.

Thanks to the reforms and the measures undertaken by the Government of the country currently the share of the private sector in the GDP makes 70%, public employment — 68%, and the public budget tax revenues — 80%.

To decently mark our great holiday — the 30th anniversary of the State Independence of Tajikistan, our entrepreneurs have contributed to the creation of more than 25,000 industrial and social facilities, which contributes to the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs and enabled addressing many social issues of the population.

I would like to avail this opportunity to thank all entrepreneurs and other people of a generous soul for their creative and patriotic initiatives.

The government of the country will continue reforms to ensure the development of entrepreneurship and creation of favorable investment environment, and will fully support the creative initiatives of entrepreneurs, protect their rights and interests.

The Government of Tajikistan in its economic policy attaches a great attention to the development of the industrial sector as one of the lead factors of the national economy ensuring permanent employment and we recognize it as an important source of public budget revenues, solution to social issues, and therefore, we declared the accelerated industrialization as our fourth strategic goal.

During the period of independence, we created hundreds of small and large industrial enterprises through mobilization of domestic and foreign investments.

As a result, the industrial production has increased sevenfold compared to 1997, and the garment industry, metallurgy, food processing, mining and processing of minerals, chemical industry and production of building materials have achieved significant results.

During this period, we have overcome the country’s dependence on imported products, including coal, building materials, especially cement and many types of food products, and laid foundation for the export of domestic industrial products.

While in 1992 the production of cement made 446,000 tons, in 2020 it reached 4.2 million tons, which is almost 10 times more.

Coal production increased more than 9 times — from 214,000 tons in 1992 to 2 million tons in 2020.

 It is worth mentioning that in the last five years alone, the country produced import-substituting products for 44 billion TJS in total.

We are taking all necessary measures to achieve our fourth strategic goal, which will help to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, reduce labor migration and increase the country’s export potential.

During the period of independence, the Government of the country has been taking all the necessary measures to protect the food security of the country through reforms in the agricultural sector and implementation of dozens of sector development programs, including administrative and legal restructuring of farms, development of fallow lands for agricultural activities, widespread introduction of re-sowing, expansion of orchards and vineyards, and promotion of farmers’ access to financial resources. Thus, we have achieved high rates of development of the agricultural sector.

In order to prevent the threat of hunger and further supply the food market with domestic products, in 1995-1997, 75,000 hectares of land, popularly known as «presidential lands», were transferred to the population.

During the period of independence of the country, we created more than 112,000ha of new orchards and vineyards, and their area reached more than 200,000ha, which is 2.2 times more than it was in 1991.

As a result of these measures, the volume of agricultural production increased 5.4 times in 2020 compared to 1997 and reached TJS 33.6bn.

Over the years of independence, we have widely introduced a very useful experience of secondary sowing, and every year we have organized secondary sowing of agricultural crops on an area of 200,000ha.

At present, in addition to secondary sowing, agricultural crops are sown on more than 900,000ha of irrigated land annually in the country.

If each of these 200,000ha employed one person at least, it means 200,000 people were employed, and in the case of by two persons – 400,000 people.

Another advantage of secondary sowing is that we thereby compensate for the loss of 138,000 ha of land allocated for housing.

During 30 years of independence, the production of grain has increased 5.3 times, potatoes — 10 times, vegetables and fruits — 7 times, and the supply of consumer market with environment friendly domestic products has significantly improved.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to all the country’s farmers diligently working to improve the land management and rational use of water and land with a view to increasing food production, enriching the consumer market and provide the population with food, i.e., working conscientiously to protect the food security of the country.

The implementation by our state of one of its strategic goals – country’s connectivity — is a major achievement of the period of independence.

To this end, the Government of the country has done a lot of work; it implemented dozens of investment projects, within the framework of which more than 2,200km of international roads, 220km of railways, 237 bridges and 5 tunnels have been built in the country. Currently, the implementation of public investment projects for the construction of roads is ongoing.

Also, in preparation for the 30th anniversary of State Independence, over the past three years, entrepreneurs and people of a generous soul contributed to construction and renovation of more than 4.500 kilometers of local, intra-city and inter-district roads, and we will further continue activities in this area

The Government of the country intends to build 1,500 kilometers of highways of international importance in the coming years to expand the geography of transportation of goods and products, improve the quality of transport services, ensure full connectivity and turn Tajikistan into a transit country.

Currently, more than 60 public investment projects are under implementation in the transport sector for a total amount of more than TJS 20.5bn.

The projects we implemented in the field of roads and transport created an opportunity for Tajikistan to improve its ranking by 20 steps in the world rating of road quality over the past two years, and ranked Tajikistan as the 50th among 141 states according to the World Economic Forum.

During the period of independence, Tajikistan, which was divided into three regions in the past, turned into a unified territory thanks to the construction of roads, tunnels and bridges, i.e., all of its regions are now landline-connected between each other at all seasons.

During the period of independence, we implemented 34 public investment projects for a total of TJS 57.2bn to develop the country’s energy sector. Currently, 17 other public investment projects amounting TJS 16.4bn are under implementation in this area.

We have constructed and launched large hydropower facilities, including the Sangtuda-1 and Sangtuda-2 hydropower plants, two units of the Rogun hydropower plant, the Dushanbe thermal power plant, hundreds of small hydropower plants, a 500 kV South-North transmission line, and others high-voltage transmission lines and powerful electrical substations. The implementation of the CASA-1000 regional transmission line project and the construction of Rogun hydropower plant are ongoing steadily.

The renovation of the Norak, Sarband and Kairokkum hydropower plants for a total amount of about TJS 12bn (more than one billion dollars) are also ongoing, which will enable to multiply their capacity and life.

Since independence, the country’s energy potential has gradually increased from 4044 megawatts in 1991 to 6131 megawatts in 2020.

Our actions in this area made it possible to create a unified national energy grid, and lift the electricity rationing for the population in the autumn-winter period, which is also one of the significant achievements of the independence period.

Let me recall that after the full commissioning of the Rogun HPP, the energy capacity of Tajikistan will increase by more than 9,781 megawatts, or 60%, and we will achieve complete energy security.

Today Tajikistan ranks second in the World Economic Forum for access to electricity, the sixth largest generator of «green energy» on the planet, it will improve its position by two more points and rank the fourth after the full commissioning of the Rogun HPP.

Tajikistan is also one of the leaders in improving the environmental situation in the region and the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, because we generate 96% of electricity in our country with the use of renewable energy sources.

Despite all the achievements of independence, I would like to emphasize that we are still at the early stage of sustainable socio-economic development of the country and the process of improving our beloved Motherland, and we must work harder and make more efforts to implement our good intentions and plans.

Therefore, the sustainable development of the country through greater diversity and competitiveness of the national economy, expanded process of digitalization of the economy, accelerated industrialization, and the use of innovative technologies and the human factor will remain our priority in the coming future.

Based on this, we strive to further improve the living standards of the country’s population and turn Tajikistan into one of the middle-income countries.

Dear compatriots!

During the state independence years, we proclaimed the development of social spheres as one of our priorities, and mobilized all resources and opportunities to further improve the level of education and literacy of the population, protect the health of citizens, and gradually improve the living standards of our people.

We introduced new state educational standards at all levels of education in line with the recent requirements.

Over the years of independence, we increased the education funding hundreds of times, and constructed and commissioned more than 3,000 new educational buildings offering 1,27m seats. At present, secondary educational institutions of the country cover 2,109m students. Today, 75 gymnasiums and 75 lyceums, 9 presidential schools, 6 lyceums for gifted children and 63 private educational institutions operate in the country.

At the same time, 78 secondary vocational educational institutions for 87,000 students operate in the country, which train specialists in hundreds of specialties, depending on the needs of the labor market.

While in 1991 we had only 13 higher educational institutions with 70,000 students, today the number of higher educational institutions has reached 41, and the number of students – 245,000.

During the period of independence, we have always paid great attention to the study of foreign languages, primarily Russian and English at all levels of education. I am delighted to note about the unprecedented success we made in this direction.

Today, more than 40,000 boys and girls from Tajikistan with foreign language skills study in developed countries, and more than 100,000 people with the knowledge of foreign languages study in the country.

Having attached paramount importance to the development of domestic science, especially the natural, hard sciences and mathematics, and to the development of the Academy of Sciences as the leading driver of domestic science, we not only preserved, but also gave this institution a high national status during the period of independence. In addition to this, we created our Supreme Examination Commission to train highly qualified scientists.

Having recognized the development of technical thinking and the expansion of the scientific worldview as one of the most pressing issues of the day, we declared the period of 2020-2040 as the "Period of 20 years of learning and development of natural and hard sciences in the Republic of Tajikistan” and started implementing activities in this direction.

Also, in order to ensure greater development of technical thinking, expanding the scientific worldview, invention, innovation and discovery of young talents, this year we launched the annual national competition «Science is a beacon of enlightenment».

We have established a special government award to support top teachers of natural, hard and math sciences, and a cash award to reward teachers who win the competition.

We are confident that the implementation of these measures, the development of science, the formation of modern scientific and technical thinking, the expansion of the scientific worldview, and invention and innovation will give a serious impetus to adolescents and youth, and this process will comprehensively contribute to the further development of Tajikistan and its transformation into an advanced industrial and agrarian country.

It is impossible to imagine the future without advanced communication and digital technologies.

As we all observe, medieval system, prejudices and backward thinking will impede building a state in the new millennium, i.e., in the age of the rapid development of science and technology. On the contrary, only professional and highly qualified personnel with the latest knowledge, striving for innovation and invention, can ensure the development of the state.

In the situation when developed countries make discoveries and inventions almost every day, produce technologies in line with the needs of the day, we must also strive to keep up with others and free our country from dependence on others.

In this regard, I would like to use one example. It is the second year as humanity is suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. When a person falls ill, s/he exclusively approaches a specialist, i.e., a doctor, because superstition cannot prevent, cure and eradicate this and any other disease.

We all together witnessed the fact that the developed countries, in other words, those state, where the science has achieved significant success, where knowledge, invention, innovation, technology and advanced technologies are cultivated, produced the vaccine, i.e., the means of prevention of this disease, and other drugs and equipment for its treatment, and saved their peoples from the threat and consequences of the mentioned disease.

I have said on several occasions and now I would like to reiterate that illiteracy and the poor education are the basis for superstition, extremism and ignorance, and ignorance brings only misfortune to a person. The bitter experience of the civil war in our country has clearly proved this truth that we will never forget.

We still face the problem of a shortage of qualified personnel, because first of all, the best personnel — scientists, doctors, engineers, teachers, craftsmen and architects, inventors, innovators, businessmen and entrepreneurs move to other countries from every country where war, instability, ignorance and superstition reign. Therefore, I support the development of science and education as the most important and priority dimension of public policy throughout the entire period of independence.

The more science, education, and technology develop, the more the state develops and the people’s standard of living rises.

If we want Tajikistan to take its deserved position among the developed countries, we must pay more attention to the development of science, education and technology, especially the natural, hard and math sciences.

We must raise educated, professional, highly qualified professionals devoted to their Motherland, their state and nation; entrust them with the management of public affairs, for the future of the Motherland and tomorrow is in the hands of today’s adolescents and youth.

Dear friends!

During the period of state independence, we declared the public health protection as an important direction of our public social policy, and undertook all the necessary measures to develop the healthcare sector. I would like to emphasize once again that the state needs a healthy nation.

Financing of the healthcare sector is increasing every year, and in the last 20 years alone it has amounted to more than TJS 16bn.

During this period, in order to create favorable conditions for medical care of the country’s population, we built more than 2,550 new healthcare facilities and equipped them with modern medical equipment.

Also, in preparation for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of state independence, we built and commissioned about 2,000 healthcare facilities in cities and regions of the country.

During the years of independence, 33,000 young people graduated from higher medical institutions, and more than 158,000 people graduated from medical colleges.

As a result of the measures taken to develop the healthcare sector and protect the health of the population in 2020 infant mortality decreased 3 times, and maternal mortality — 4 times compared to 1991.

Of this number, natural population growth has been stable at 2.1%, and this year it has reached 2.4%.

The emergence and spread of the Covid-19 infectious disease has become a serious challenge for the country’s healthcare system, which our doctors have passed and are still at the front edge of the fight against this dangerous infectious disease.

In this regard, let me recall that the training of highly qualified healthcare providers, including infectious disease specialists, virologists and laboratory personnel, is one of the most important and urgent tasks.

When the Covid-19 emerged, everyone even the superpowers were at risk.

Humanity was not ready for such a situation, and there was no medicine for it. As a result, millions of people died.

However, as I said earlier, thanks to science and knowledge, modern equipment and technologies, it was possible to prevent and cure this disease as well.

Social protection of the population is one of the most important areas of our public social policy, and we can consider the introduction of a new system for assigning and paying targeted social assistance to low-income families and citizens as one of our achievements in this area during the period of independence.

In this regard, we are introducing a system of allowances to low-income families with children attending general education institutions; more than 753,000 students from low-income families receive allowances.

In addition to this, we introduced a targeted and objective method of aid in 2011, and currently 248,000 families receive social allowances.

The government of the country pays constant and special attention to the social protection of the low-income segments of the population, especially the persons with disabilities and orphans.

There are more than 157,000 persons with disability in the country and in the last five years alone, we increased the size of disability allowances from 1.4 to 2 times, varying based on the category.

During this period, we increased the allowance for orphans and those left without guardianship by 1.9 times and currently we have about 85,000 of this category of people in the country.

During the independence, the number of social welfare institutions has increased 4.5 times, and in 2021, it reached 113 institutions, including 7 boarding houses for the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Funding per capita for residents of boarding houses for the elderly and persons with disabilities increased 757 times during this period and reached TJS 26,000 in 2021.

Along with the regulation of labor migration, which today has become a global process, and addressing other related issues, the Government of the country is taking all necessary measures to reduce the intensity of labor migration.

The implementation of various programs in the last eight years enabled to create more than a million permanent and seasonal jobs, and decrease the number of citizens engaged in labor migration from 1,1m in 2012 to 400,000 in 2019, namely by 64%.

We will further undertake measures in this direction, as creation of new jobs for residents is one of the most important tasks of the State and the Government of the country.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

During the period of state independence, the status of women in society has strengthened, their activities in the leadership of various branches of government, social and economic spheres, state enterprises and the private sector have expanded significantly. The state and government of the country have always appreciated and appreciate the contribution of women in all spheres of society, especially in the difficult years of the beginning of independence, post-war reconstruction and subsequent stages of the country’s development.

We are proud that today a Tajik woman is recognized as a politician, Member of Parliament, scientist, teacher, doctor, engineer and writer, and the ranks of women scientists, inventors, craftsperson, creators, business executives and entrepreneurs are growing ever. Moreover, today there is no sphere in the country, which does not engage Tajik women and girls.

Currently, women make 23.3% of the total number of civil servants, and more than 18% of them are in leadership positions.

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