Today, on the occasıon of entrepreneur’s Day under the sponsorship and with the participation of the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon the International Business Forum Dushanbe-2015 under the title - "Contribution of business and investment  to sustainable development” was held in the State Complex "Kokhi Borbad".

The forum was attended by heads of ministries and national agencies, members of parliament, high-ranking representatives of governments of associate countries, and local and foreign entrepreneurs and investors, major foreign and domestic companies, commercial banks, heads of international financial institutions, business associations, diplomatic missions, and experienced scientists and experts, as well as 350 investment companies from 35 countries, in general by more than 2 thousand participants.

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon made a speech in front of the numerous forum’s participants and wished success to all the domestic and foreign businessmen, as well as to the work of forum.

President Emomali Rahmon said that the aim of the forum is to present investment opportunities in Tajikistan, the appropriate conditions for dialogue of business circles, review and finding ways to solve the major economic issues and problems, the idea of ​​innovation in the investment space of the country, to establish direct trade and economic links between domestic and foreign entrepreneurs and investors, strengthening their long-term cooperation and planning joint activities.

The President also stressed that such events contribute to the expansion of economic and trade cooperation between the States and in particular, between entrepreneurs and investors.

During his speech, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon has comprehensively described the support of small and medium-sized businesses, the preferences of the Government of the Republic, the establishment of the fund to support entrepreneurship, the results of the previous meeting of the Head of State with the entrepreneurs, the participation of businessmen, local and foreign investors in the country's economic development, the import of modern technologies , the opening of the joint industrial enterprises, creating new jobs, increasing the volume of production and exports of commodities and products in general, the results of business activities in the country.

President Emomali Rahmon expressed concern about the negative impact of the difficult geopolitical situation in the world, a slowdown in economic growth and the depreciation of the national currencies of major trading partners of our country, as well as changes in market prices for major export and import goods and services in world markets for various socio- economic spheres of countries and stressed that the development and strengthening of external economic relations with all friendly countries and partners is an important objective of our economic policy.

During this period, the regular annual rate of GDP growth reached 7 percent and poverty rates declined from 53% in 2007 to 32% in 2014, which contributed to a significant improvement in the quality of life of the population.

During 2000-2014, the volume of investments in fixed assets increased by 109 million somoni to 7.4 billion somoni, or 68 times, and the number of industrial enterprises increased by 1116.

President Emomali Rahmon spoke about the support of the business sector and noted that the Entrepreneurship Support Fund was established for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and access to preferential credit resources.

According to the Fund since the beginning of its activities to date 117 business entities have received preferential long-term subsidy of 95 million Somoni, covering 47 cities and districts of the country.

In addition, in 2014 in order to support the development of entrepreneurship at the expense of credit resources of the banking system around 9 billion Somoni was allocated to entrepreneurs and for the past 8 months of 2015, 7 billion Somoni has been granted.

In his speech, President Emomali Rahmon also touched upon favorable investment opportunities and resources of Tajikistan, attracting foreign investments into the national economy, strengthening the cooperation of the private sector with the government, review of historical and cultural areas and different natural resources, the development of a number of legal acts and wished success to numerous forum participants.

Emomali Rahmon stressed the importance of achieving a major objective of the Government - the implementation of e-government project, which will ensure transparency of the taxpayers.

The President also paid special attention to the initiatives of entrepreneurs in support of the social policy of the Government regarding support of country’s people in need.

President Emomali Rahmon congratulated all the participants of the forum on the first anniversary of the "Entrepreneur's Day" and wished fruitful work and success to entrepreneurs and investors.

At the end of the meeting, President Emomali Rahmon with confidence said that the results of the forum, ideas and new projects will contribute to ensuring economic development and welfare of the people of Tajikistan and the region.

In addition, President Emomali Rahmon called on influential international financial institutions to provide comprehensive assistance to the countries affected by the global financial crisis.

The Head of State said that the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, in turn, will further continue cooperation at appropriate level with the partner countries and financial institutions.

Other speakers included representatives of foreign countries and international financial institutions, foreign investors, including Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation for Central Asia Moezzam Mekan, Regional Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for Central Asia Masaru Honma, Deputy Head of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, Islamic Development Bank Group Hani Salem Sonbol, the head of JSC "Sangtuda HPP-1" Pavel Lavrov, the Regional Head of the company "Coca-Cola" in the CIS Osman Kazdana and the Head of the "Tajik-Chinese mining companies," Yang Zhi Cai, who expressed gratitude to the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon for the creation of favorable conditions in the investment space of the country, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and the open doors. Speakers pledged to effectively address the problems put before to promote economic development of Tajikistan.

At the end of the forum President thanked the businessmen for their active participation in the work of this forum, for their contribution to the progress of the business sector.

President Emomali Rahmon also gave specific instructions and guidance to the Government of the Republic and the relevant structures on the implementation of orders of the country's leadership in terms of economic development and the full support of the business sector.