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Science and technology in Tajikistan
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Science and technology in Tajikistan
Science and technology in Tajikistan examines government efforts to develop a national innovation system and the impact of these policies.
Tajikistan has the fastest-growing population in Central Asia (2.42% in 2014) and ranks lowest among the Central Asian republics on the Human Development Index (133rd in 2013). It also has the lowest GDP per capita in the region, although this rose from $1,788 to $2,512 (in current purchasing power parity dollars) between 2008 and 2013.
Tajikistan has recorded strong growth in recent years, thanks to various economic reforms, including the development of new sectors such as hydropower and tourism and effective measures to promote macro-economic stability. The country has considerable assets: in addition to freshwater and diverse mineral resources, including gold, it has relatively large expanses of undeveloped land suitable for agriculture and environmentally friendly crops, a relatively inexpensive labour force and occupies a strategic geographical position, thanks to its border with China, making it a place of transit for merchandise and transportation networks.
Although both exports and imports have grown impressively over the past decade, Tajikistan remains vulnerable to economic shocks, owing to its reliance on exports of raw materials, a restricted circle of trading partners and a negligible manufacturing capacity. The economy has encountered fluctuating global demand for cotton, aluminium and other metals (except gold) in recent years. Aluminium and raw cotton are its chief exports and the Tajik Aluminium Company is the country's primary industrial asset. In January 2014, the Minister of Agriculture announced the government's intention to reduce the land cultivated by cotton to make way for other crops.
Like the other four Central Asian republics, Tajikistan is implementing structural reforms to improve competitiveness, as it gradually moves from a state-controlled economy to a market economy. In particular, the government has been striving to modernize the industrial sector and foster the development of service industries to reduce the share of agriculture in GDP. Between 2005 and 2013, however, the share of agriculture in the Tajik economy actually grew from 24% to 27% of GDP. Although the services sector expanded from 45% to 51% of GDP, the share of industry receded from 31% to 22% of GDP. Within the industry, the share of manufacturing halved to 11% of GDP.
In addition to widespread poverty, the country faces other challenges: the need to develop the rule of law; the high cost of combating drug trafficking and terrorism on its border; low Internet penetration (16% of the population in 2013) and a small domestic market. The government sector is not structured to meet the demands of a market economy and development plans and strategies are neither interconnected nor vertically integrated. Potential partners in the private sector and civil society are insufficiently implicated in the development process. To compound matters, the modest allocation of financial resources is frequently inadequate to reach the goals set forth in national strategic documents. The country is also plagued by inadequate statistics. These factors affect the implementation of the National Development Strategy for 2005−2015, which was designed by President Emomalii Rahmon to help the country meet the Millennium Development Goals.
In education, the National Development Strategy for 2005−2015 focuses on an institutional and economic reform of the education system and on boosting the education sector's potential to provide services. Key problems to overcome include widespread malnutrition and illness among children, leading to absenteeism; poorly qualified teaching staff; lowly paid teachers, which affects morale and encourages corruption; a shortage of up-to-date textbooks; ineffective evaluation methods; and inadequate curricula at all levels of education for meeting the demands of the modern world, including an absence of science-based curricula at some levels.
According to projections, the number of secondary school pupils could rise by 40% between 2005 and 2015. A recent survey revealed a lack of 600,000 places for schoolchildren, no heating or running water in one-quarter of schools and no toilets in 35%. Internet access is rare, even in schools equipped with computers, owing to frequent electricity cuts and a shortage of trained staff. In recent years, the gender gap in school attendance has increased for pupils in grades 9−11 particularly, in favour of boys.
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Science and technology in Tajikistan
Science and technology in Tajikistan examines government efforts to develop a national innovation system and the impact of these policies.
Tajikistan has the fastest-growing population in Central Asia (2.42% in 2014) and ranks lowest among the Central Asian republics on the Human Development Index (133rd in 2013). It also has the lowest GDP per capita in the region, although this rose from $1,788 to $2,512 (in current purchasing power parity dollars) between 2008 and 2013.
Tajikistan has recorded strong growth in recent years, thanks to various economic reforms, including the development of new sectors such as hydropower and tourism and effective measures to promote macro-economic stability. The country has considerable assets: in addition to freshwater and diverse mineral resources, including gold, it has relatively large expanses of undeveloped land suitable for agriculture and environmentally friendly crops, a relatively inexpensive labour force and occupies a strategic geographical position, thanks to its border with China, making it a place of transit for merchandise and transportation networks.
Although both exports and imports have grown impressively over the past decade, Tajikistan remains vulnerable to economic shocks, owing to its reliance on exports of raw materials, a restricted circle of trading partners and a negligible manufacturing capacity. The economy has encountered fluctuating global demand for cotton, aluminium and other metals (except gold) in recent years. Aluminium and raw cotton are its chief exports and the Tajik Aluminium Company is the country's primary industrial asset. In January 2014, the Minister of Agriculture announced the government's intention to reduce the land cultivated by cotton to make way for other crops.
Like the other four Central Asian republics, Tajikistan is implementing structural reforms to improve competitiveness, as it gradually moves from a state-controlled economy to a market economy. In particular, the government has been striving to modernize the industrial sector and foster the development of service industries to reduce the share of agriculture in GDP. Between 2005 and 2013, however, the share of agriculture in the Tajik economy actually grew from 24% to 27% of GDP. Although the services sector expanded from 45% to 51% of GDP, the share of industry receded from 31% to 22% of GDP. Within the industry, the share of manufacturing halved to 11% of GDP.
In addition to widespread poverty, the country faces other challenges: the need to develop the rule of law; the high cost of combating drug trafficking and terrorism on its border; low Internet penetration (16% of the population in 2013) and a small domestic market. The government sector is not structured to meet the demands of a market economy and development plans and strategies are neither interconnected nor vertically integrated. Potential partners in the private sector and civil society are insufficiently implicated in the development process. To compound matters, the modest allocation of financial resources is frequently inadequate to reach the goals set forth in national strategic documents. The country is also plagued by inadequate statistics. These factors affect the implementation of the National Development Strategy for 2005−2015, which was designed by President Emomalii Rahmon to help the country meet the Millennium Development Goals.
In education, the National Development Strategy for 2005−2015 focuses on an institutional and economic reform of the education system and on boosting the education sector's potential to provide services. Key problems to overcome include widespread malnutrition and illness among children, leading to absenteeism; poorly qualified teaching staff; lowly paid teachers, which affects morale and encourages corruption; a shortage of up-to-date textbooks; ineffective evaluation methods; and inadequate curricula at all levels of education for meeting the demands of the modern world, including an absence of science-based curricula at some levels.
According to projections, the number of secondary school pupils could rise by 40% between 2005 and 2015. A recent survey revealed a lack of 600,000 places for schoolchildren, no heating or running water in one-quarter of schools and no toilets in 35%. Internet access is rare, even in schools equipped with computers, owing to frequent electricity cuts and a shortage of trained staff. In recent years, the gender gap in school attendance has increased for pupils in grades 9−11 particularly, in favour of boys.