Tajikistan Ambassador to Turkey Ashrafjon Gulov on February 1 met in Ankara with Mr. Hassan Basri Kurt, the President of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization of Turkey (KOSGEB).

The Tajik MFA information department says the parties discussed the state and prospects of further expansion of economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Turkey.

They, in particular, discussed steps to implement the agreements reached at the 11th meeting of the Tajik-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation and exchanged views on the establishment of a Joint Investment Fund to finance projects of small and medium-sized businesses of both countries in Tajikistan.

The parties reportedly noted that industrial development was crucial for further development of Tajikistan’s economy, employment creation, as well as the achievement of the national strategic goals.  

Tajik ambassador and KOSGEB president agreed to develop an Action Plan based on the Memorandum of Cooperation between the State Committee on investment and State-owned Property management of Tajikistan and KOSGEB, signed on the sidelines of the 11th meeting of the Tajik-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation and to give a special impetus to interactions on the creation of a Joint Investment fund, the Tajik MFA information department said..

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (Küçük ve Orta Ölçekli İşletmeleri Geliştirme ve Destekleme İdaresi Başkanlığı, or KOSGEB) is a Turkish government organization based in Ankara.  It was established at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the form of a pilot project in Gaziantep in 1973 within the frame of the International Treaty between the Government of Republic of Turkey and United Nations Industrial Development Organization, started providing service with community facility workshops for the small-scale industrial enterprises.

The Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Turkey established diplomatic relations on January 29, 1992.Tajik–Turkish relations are friendly and cooperative and underlined with a legal basis of more than 65 treaties and protocols which have been signed between the two countries since 1991.

The Turkish Agency for Cooperation and Coordination (TIKA) in Tajikistan plays an important role in the development of bilateral relations between the two countries.  Dozens of projects were implemented in Tajikistan by this Agency.