Today, 28 September 2015, in New York City at the UN Headquarters, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon took part and spoke at the High level Forum of Land Locked Developing Countries.
At the outset, Emomali Rahmon extended his appreciation to the Chair of Group, delegation of Zambia, for their tireless efforts and leadership in promoting the interests of the developing land locked countries, and described the coinciding of today's meeting with the adoption of the new Agenda for Sustainable Development as a very important event.
The Head of Tajik State expressed concern over the lack of access to sea that constantly creates challenges to LLDCs in terms of sustainable development and constitutes a major obstacle to further integration of these countries into the world economy, and stated the commitment of Tajikistan to the decisions and recommendations of the Almaty Program of Action and the Vienna Program of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries for 2014-2024. The President voiced confidence in his speech that "the implementation of the plan of action for the Decade adopted by the UNGA, with its six priority areas, will contribute to the structural transformation of our economy and strengthening of its infrastructure, and also will promote regional cooperation, in terms of integration."
Then, the President of the country mentioned about the special attention of Tajikistan to the promotion of regional trade, and its remarkable results achieved in improving its transport system and implementing a special approach towards the issue of transit and communication potentials.
Emomali Rahmon also underlined the multifaceted challenges of LLDCs in their path to long-term development and expressed concern over the poverty and inequality, inadequate industrial capacities, inadequate infrastructure, dominating share of raw materials in exports, low per capita energy supply, and youth unemployment which remain the key problems in LLDCs.
President of Tajikistan expressed his views on the consequences of climate change and natural disasters, including desertification, degradation of land and glaciers that weaken the sustainable development of these countries, and stated in particular "for instance, In Tajikistan every year water-related natural disasters cause huge economic and social damage."
Emomali Rahmon highlighted that these and other our current challenges compel the country, through the use of alternative means, to focus its efforts on the following strategic areas: ensuring energy and food security, and overcoming communication deadlock.
In conclusion of his speech, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon underlined that, due to the above challenges, LLDCs still need a strong international support for successful implementation of the new agenda for sustainable development, and stated his confidence that the UN can and should continue to play the leading and coordinating role in facilitating technical and financial assistance to LLDCs.