DUSHANBE, June 1, Asia-Plus -- A development forum will take place in Dushanbe tomorrow. 

At the eve of this forum the European Commission issued the latest developments on assistance to Tajikistan.

The European Commission started to provide assistance to Tajikistan immediately after independence.

To date, the EC has delivered assistance of a volume of nearly 500 million euros, of which almost 80% were grants and 20% loans.  A multiple number of sectors were addressed to promote institutional and economic reforms as well as administrative modernisation. Poverty alleviation remains the overarching goal of EC assistance to Tajikistan.

The assistance underpins the implementation of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Tajikistan, which was signed in 2004 and is currently being ratified by the Member States. This agreement covers all main policy areas.

The future assistance to Tajikistan will be guided by the new EU financial Cooperation Strategy 2007-2013 containing three main priorities: good governance and economic reform; poverty alleviation and regional cooperation

The new EU-Central Asia Strategy of June 2007 will also serve as a guideline for the further delivery of assistance.

The main instrument of the EU in Tajikistan in the coming years will remain a budget support programme to trigger reforms in the areas of social protection and, as of 2009, health.

For 2007/2008 the EC activities in Tajikistan will support the following focal areas of assistance: social protection through budget support and complementary technical assistance; health, initially through technical assistance and moving into budget support in 2009; private sector development; public finance management; poverty alleviation through targeted rural development activities; disaster preparedness through ECHO and human rights and civil society development through EIDHR.

At the same time Tajikistan will continue to be part of a number of flagship regional projects: border management (BOMCA); anti drug trafficking (CADAP); energy security and diversification (INOGATE); transport corridors (TRACECA) and regional environmental support (CAREC)