BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 21. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 50 million grant to finance the Tajik government’s anti-crisis action plan, Trend reports citing the ADB's press service.
The Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditures (BRACE) Program will help finance the government’s anti-crisis action plan, which aims to expand social assistance for poor and vulnerable people, support domestic food production, safeguard small businesses, and support employment for returning migrants.
"ADB’s support will help mitigate the impact of rising food and oil prices and diminishing remittances due to the situation in Ukraine, which are slowing growth and pushing up unemployment and poverty,” ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov said.
With ADB’s support, 250,000 poor and vulnerable households in Tajikistan will benefit from one-time cash transfers of 600 somoni ($59) per household.
"The program will also provide concessional loans through two state-owned banks for small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in agriculture, services, and trade sectors,” the ADB Senior Economist Muhammadi Boboev said.
Tajikistan joined ADB in 1998, and the bank has since become the country's largest multilateral development partner, providing more than $2.5 billion in assistance, including over $1.8 billion in grants.