Thursday, June 21, 2012 -
The poverty rate in Tajikistan may be reduced to 30 percent by 2015 from 41 percent this year, the Tajik leader told a global meeting on sustainable development in Brazil.
President Emomali Rahmon was speaking to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian capital.
He said the levels of poverty have already been sharply reduced from 73 percent in 2003, to 53 percent in 2007.
“If this trend continues, the poverty rate will reduce to 30 percent by 2015,” the Asia-Plus news agency cited Rahmon as saying.
Rahmon said his government’s hydropower program was in line with the conference theme, “Sustainable energy for all.”
“Use of hydropower fully corresponds with the conception of ‘green economy’”, he said.
The mainly mountainous republic is building hundreds of small and large hydropower plants to harness electrical power from its copious supplies of water.
Rahmon used the event to seek support from the United Nations on combating problems related to climatic changes, which are threatening its mountain glaciers.
UN agencies are actively tackling socioeconomic and security problems in the poverty-stricken Central Asian republic located next to Afghanistan.
Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia, and has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $13.8 billion. The country ranks 137th out of 227 countries ranked by the CIA.