Tajikistan's return to the Central Asian unified energy system will bring huge economic benefits to the country, especially after the Rogun Hydropower Station with a capacity of 3600 MW is fully put into use. The export capacity of Tajikistan will increase several times, and its annual average capacity will reach 13.0-17 billion kWh. The whole of Central Asia will benefit from it. Entering the energy circle will save about 10 GW of electricity, equivalent to an increase of 22 billion dollars in revenue.

Zhuma, Minister of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan, said at the Second Meeting of Energy Ministers of SCO Member States held in June 2022: "The project of reconnecting Tajikistan's energy system to the Central Asia Joint Energy System is expected to be completed in 2023. The implementation of the project will make full use of the potential of mutually beneficial flows and improve the reliability of the regional energy system."

According to him, at the end of May, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed a technical agreement within the framework of the project. In 2023, three 500 kV lines and two 220 kV lines will be connected.

Strengthening regional cooperation

From September 14 to 15, 2023, Dushanbe will host the fifth Central Asian Heads of State Consultation, which will discuss a series of urgent issues and jointly choose solutions. The last China Asia Summit was held in July last year in Jorpong Atta, Kyrgyzstan, and the main outcome was the signing of the friendship document on the development of the region in the twenty-first century formulated by Kazakhstan. According to its main provisions, the Central Asian countries committed themselves not to use military force against each other, but only to resolve all disputes through diplomatic means. If the terms are strictly implemented, the tension between Dushanbe and Bishkek due to the border issue can be greatly alleviated.

However, Tajikistan delayed the signing of the document on the ground that it needed to go through domestic procedures, and did not specify which procedures were involved. It is possible to complete this process and finally sign the document at the fifth summit.

In any case, if countries in the region want to survive the global economic crisis, they are doomed to cooperate closely. Analysts at the Eurasian Development Bank agreed. They believed that the role of Central Asia in the international arena was greatly underestimated.

Support Russian

In September 2022, at the online opening ceremony of the five Russian schools in Tajikistan, President Rakhmon welcomed the initiative to declare 2023 the CIS Russian Year.

Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Grigoriev pointed out that Russia will continue to take more measures to support and develop the Russian language in the CIS, including in Tajikistan.

In addition, together with the local government and the embassy, the Russian diaspora and the staff of the delegation of the International Humanitarian Cooperation Agency will actively participate in the preparation of the celebration activities, plan to hold festivals and competitions on Russian knowledge, and a series of scientific conferences.

Global recognition of the Water Initiative

In December 2016, under the initiative of Tajikistan, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on the International Decade for Action of "Water for Sustainable Development" from 2018 to 2028. Since then, Tajikistan has increased its efforts in this field year by year, and has gained well deserved global recognition. The upcoming UN Water Conference in New York in March 2023, co chaired by Tajikistan and the Netherlands, is proof of that.

Forty five years ago, the United Nations held the first such event in Argentina. Nowadays, the problem of rational utilization of water resources is becoming more and more urgent, because the world is facing the approaching shortage of fresh water. Dushanbe was the first country to draw the attention of the international community to this issue and tirelessly promote this initiative.

In his 2022 State of the Union address recently, President Rahmon pointed out that from March 1, 2023, the salaries of law enforcement and military personnel will be increased by 25%, and that of public officials in other countries by 20%; From July 1, 2023, salaries, grants, basic pensions and other pensions in the fields of health and education will be increased by 20%, and insurance and government pensions will be increased by at least 16%.

This kind of "optimism" of Rahmon has a solid foundation - the senior analyst of the Eurasian Development Bank predicted that the economic growth rate of Tajikistan will be 7.5% this year and will slow to 6.5% in 2023. The inflation rate will be 6.9% in 2022 and 6% in 2023. The main reason is that the potential inflation rate of Tajikistan is low due to the continued weakening of world commodity prices.

Therefore, the monetary policy of the National Bank of Tajikistan will focus on keeping the prices of consumer goods and services within the target parameters, while weakening the need for substantial interest rate increases.Editor/Xing Wentao