DURING his first official visit, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmanov offered to help set up hydro power plants in Pakistan. In his meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on March 9 he took keen interest in building a 600MW hydro plant right away and another a 220MW plant later. He also announced that Tajikistan would open its consulate in Karachi soon as desired by the business communities of the two countries.

President Rakhmanov also stressed for measures to help promote bilateral trade, mentioning particularly to use livestock as the base for enhancing the bilateral cooperation. The chief minister briefed the Tajik guest about the two seaports at Karachi, both of which also cater to the needs of business communities of Afghanistan and many other central Asian States.

Earlier, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, addressing a banquet held at the presidency in the honour of the Tajik guest, had offered landlocked Tajikistan an easy access to his country’s seaports, Gwadar Port in particular. He also advocated for a trilateral transit trade agreement between Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Appreciating partnership between the two countries within the frameworks of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Economic Cooperation Organisation, Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the United Nations, President Zardari had expressed interest in improving air and road links with Tajikistan.

In November 2010, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani represented Pakistan at the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe. He was accompanied by the Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resource Syed Naveed Qamar and Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Salman Bashir.

Pakistan is one of the four countries having the observer status in the SCO created in Shanghai in 2001 by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Pakistan sought permanent membership in the SCO that also has Iran, India and Mangolia as observers, and Belarus and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners. Afghanistan was also invited at the moot as a special guest.

Country profile: The population of Tajikistan, which got independence on September 9, 1991 from the former Soviet Union, is over 7.6 million. It has one of the lowest per capita GDPs among 15 former Soviet republics- with 53 per cent of the population below the poverty line.

As many as one million Tajiks work abroad, almost all of them in Russia. Less than seven per cent of its land area (143,100 sq km; 141,510 land, 2,590 water) is arable. Cotton is one of its most important crop though other agriculture products like grain, fruits, grapes, vegetables, cattle, sheep and goats are also important parts of agriculture.

Tajikistan’s industry comprises primarily a large aluminum plant (aluminum production consumes 40 per cent of all the electricity produced in the country), hydropower facilities, and small outdated light industry and food processing units, cement and vegetable oil. Tajikistan thus has a narrow industrial base while gifted with such valued mineral resources like some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown coal, lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten, silver and gold. President Rakhmanov’s offer to invest in hydro-electric projects in Pakistan should be viewed in the backdrop of Tajikistan’s reliance on hydroelectricity. Though reeling from acute power shortages, Tajikistan produces almost all its electricity from hydro sources. It ranks 11th among 150 countries producing 98.1 per cent of its electricity from hydro sources.

Tajikistan is raising its electricity generation with the completion of the Sangtuda I hydropower dam in 2009 with Russian investment while the smaller Sangtuda-2, built with Iranian investment, is scheduled for completion in 2012. It looks ahead to improve its electricity generation even further with 3,600 megawatt Rogun dam, which with 335 meters height will be the world’s highest dam if and when completed, a project long stalled as it is. Electric generation, supply and distribution is controlled by state-owned joint stock company Barqi Tojik.

Tajikistan has the capacity to generate more hydroelectric power than any other country in Central Asia. It is producing just about 16.5 billion kilowatt hours but has the potential to produce more than 300 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Most of its hydroelectric energy is produced by the hydroelectric stations on the Vakhsh River.

Bilateral trade: Pakistan’s external trade with Tajikistan remains negligible. Its record exports to Tajikistan was Rs434 million in 1997-98 while its record imports from Tajikistan totaled a Rs746 million in 2007-08.