DUSHANBE, November 13, 2014, Asia-Plus – On Wednesday November 12, Tajik Minister of Finance Abdusalom Qurbonov met here with Mr. Jonathan Dunn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team.

According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Secretariat, the sides discussed the current fiscal situation in the country and prospects of development of economic situation and risks in Tajikistan – economic growth, currency exchange rate, export, import.

A special attention was reportedly paid to financial and banking policy, including improvement of activity of the Open Joint Stock Company (OJSC) Agroinvestbonk, monitoring state-run enterprises, fiscal risks of the financial sector as well as Tajikistan’s cooperation with other international financial institutions.

An international Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Mr. Jonathan Dunn arrived in Tajikistan on November 6 to carry out constructive discussions with high-ranking Tajik state officials and, development partners, and the private sector.  The IMF staff team will stay in Dushanbe until November 20.

We will recall that during the visit paid to Tajikistan March 28-April 10, 2013, Mr. Dun noted in a statement released on April 9 that “The financial system should be strengthened so that it can attract and intermediate savings to support investment and job-creating growth. This requires the establishment of financial accountability, the improvement of governance at some banks, and the elimination of directed lending.”

“In this regard, resolving Agroinvestbonk in line with good international practice is a high and urgent priority. To protect the value of Agroinvestbonk and the government’s investment in the bank, the mission recommends that the government hires, on a competitive basis, a reputable international management team to run the bank.

“The mission urges the National Bank of Tajikistan to refrain from regulatory forbearance on Agroinvestbonk’s lending practices, and to prevent net new lending by Agroinvestbonk until such time as a new international management team is appointed.  To help minimize the fiscal cost of its intervention in Agroinvestbonk, the government should consider re-privatizing Agroinvestbonk by hiring an investment bank to market the government’s share globally.  The government should also enforce collections on the loans that it purchased from Agroinvestbonk.”

Founded in 1992, Agroinvestbonk, with headquarters in Dushanbe, has main branches in Khorog, Khujand, Kulob and Qurghon Teppa and more than 60 other branches across the republic.