The State Unitary Enterprise Khojagii Manziliyu Kommunali (KMK -- the state holding company for public utilities) has received JICA President’s Award.

According to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Tajikistan Office, the handover ceremony of JICA President's Award took place in Dushanbe yesterday.

During the ceremony, Mr. Hideki Tanabe, Chief Representative of the JICA Tajikistan Office, on behalf of the President of JICA, presented the Award to Mr. Ravshan Tuychizoda, First Deputy Director General of the State Unitary Enterprise "Khojagii Manziliyu Kommunali" for its outstanding contribution to the development of human resources, society and the economy in Tajikistan, and to the enhancement of friendly relations and mutual understanding between Tajikistan and Japan through the “Project for Rehabilitation of Drinking Water Supply Systems in Panj District of Khatlon Province,” which was completed in 2016.

Mr. Tuychizoda in his thanks words stated out that the success of the Project is not achieved only by KMK, but with the great support and contribution of Consultants, Contractor and the JICA itself.  He also emphasized that the Project is also highly evaluated inside of Tajikistan, where the construction works of the Project was completed ahead of schedule (in 1.5 years) with usage of new Japanese technologies. 

JICA annually presents the JICA President Award to honor projects, experts, consultants or volunteers for their outstanding achievements in various areas including human resource development, livelihood improvement, poverty reduction and infrastructure development in developing countries.

This year as its 13th round, JICA President Award was given to 3 individuals and 9 projects all over the world, including this outstanding Project in Tajikistan.  The Project supported construction of an elevated water tank with the large capacity of 1,800m3, which is known to be the biggest in Central Asia and also the first reinforced concrete made water tank in Tajikistan. It also supported installment of customer water meters and introduction of measured tariff system.  Today, the much wider population in Panj enjoy 24 hour water supply.

It should be highlighted that the Project also received the 2016 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers as “an epoch-making project that contributes greatly to the development of civil engineering technology and society.”

JICA began its technical cooperation with Tajikistan in 1993 by inviting Tajik officials to gain knowledge and experience on governance and macroeconomics development.  At the end of March 2016, the total number of participants to JICA’s Knowledge Co-Creation Programs, formerly called the Training Programs, has exceeded 2000 people.  JICA Office was established in 2006, and since then various Grant Financial Assistance and Technical Cooperation projects have been implemented more dynamically, aiming at improving living standard of Tajik people for the sectors such as agriculture and rural development, water supply, health, transport, energy, capacity building etc.  JICA’s cumulative investment in all sectors amounted as 82.06 million USD Technical Cooperation and 259.15 million USD for Grant Assistance with 33 (on-going and implemented) projects.