DUSHANBE, April 17, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik central bank reportedly does not object to foreign international team running Agorinvestbonk, which is one of Tajikistan’s largest commercial banks.

“Tajikistan’s legislation does not prohibit foreign nationals from running banks registered with the country’s regulating bank,” Abdujabbor Shirinov, Chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) told Asia-Plus in an interview.

“Today, several Tajik banks are run by foreign specialists and I don’t see anything bad about that,” said Shirinov, “For example, foreign specialist run The First MicroFiananceBank of Tajikistan and the AccessBank Tajikistan.”

He further added that the government allocated considerable funds last year for settlement of the situation in Agroinvestbonk.

We will recall that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends that the Tajik government hires, on a competitive basis, a reputable international management team to run Agroinvestbonk in order to protect the value of the bank and the government’s investment in the bank.

Agroinvestbank is the second largest commercial bank in Tajikistan, focused on providing financial services to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises and to the agricultural sector.  Founded in 1992, Agroinvestbonk, with headquarters in Dushanbe, has main branches in Khorog, Khujand, Kulob and Qurghon Teppa and 61other branches across the republic.