USA pledges 4m dollars for job creation in Tajikistan

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jul 25, 2002

Dushanbe, 24 July: The US embassy in Tajikistan and the regional mission of the USAID presented a new three-year development programme via public cooperation in Central Asia in Dushanbe on 23 July.

The programme is aimed at stepping up the participation of members of the community in planning and adopting decisions as well as at increasing employment opportunities for women and young people. The programme will be carried out in Tajikistan by the Mercy Corps, the UNDP and the Aga Khan Foundation.

Addressing those gathered, US ambassador to Tajikistan Franklin Huddle said that the USA would give 4m dollars to provide people of certain districts with jobs. The programme will be carried out in the southwest and southeast of Khatlon Region [in southern Tajikistan] and in the [central] Rasht Valley.

Specifically the programme is aimed, first of all, at raising people's living standards. "Its main special feature is that not the organization which carries out the work and not the local authorities but the population itself will determine the sphere of investment," the ambassador said.

[Passage to end omitted: Rasht people determined spheres of investment; the programme covers regions of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan]

Source: Asia-Plus news agency, Dushanbe, in Russian 0940 gmt 24 Jul 02

BBC Monitoring