Day: February 2, 2023

Eurasianet reported on January 31 that Tajikistan’s leader has slated head of the state communications service agency for the dismal state of internet provision in the country.

Speaking at a government meeting on January 24, President Emomali Rahmon singled out Beg Sabur for criticism for his handling of the telecommunications sector.

Sabur has since that time reportedly been dispatched to the remote Murgab district in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), where internet users still have to rely on glacially slow second-generation cellular connections, to begin tackling the problem.

During an address to a joint meeting of both chambers of parliament on December 23, President Emomali Rahmon drew a direct correlation between the difficulty of getting online and the sad state of the tourism industry.

“Basically, where do tourists go?” he asked. “Where there is good internet.”

According to Eurasianet, tourist operators weary with the glitchy e-visa system, the lack of international transport connections and what industry insiders overwhelmingly agree is the lackluster quality of the government’s tourism officials might offer a more elaborate explanation, but that Tajik internet is appalling is certainly a fact.

Tajikistan routinely ranks toward the bottom of international standings in terms of value for money offered by internet providers. Peer nations where it concerns mobile connections typically include the likes of Cuba and Venezuela. One gigabyte of data can cost anywhere around US$3. Things are a little better, although not much, with landline connections. The problem cannot be blamed on geography either. Neighboring Kyrgyzstan can boast of internet that is both cheap and fast, Eurasianet noted.

Remedying this impasse is going to be complicated, though, since the cash-strapped government has repeatedly stung service providers for windfalls through spurious tax-related fines.

“In the past, the Tax Committee has fined mobile companies and [internet service providers] for large sums. They got US$20 million from Tcell, for example, and about US$70 million from Babilon,” a telecommunications service official told Eurasianet on condition of anonymity. “Now mobile companies have no money, or they are not interested [in making investments]. They are entrepreneurs, you can’t push them too much.”

Eurasianet notes that where Tajikistan’s privately owned mobile telecommunications service providers were racking up revenues of around US$500 million in 2013, that figure had dropped to around US$282 million in 2022.

Beg Sabur has served as head of Tajikistan’s telecommunications regulator since 2011.

A World Bank report published in August 2019 found that once a promising sector, Tajikistan’s telecommunications sector has languished.

“Despite modest improvements to international bandwidth (to about 6-8 Gbps), Tajikistan’s data transmission speeds remain the slowest among regional peers and other small, landlocked countries,” the World Bank report stated at the time. “Such slow international bandwidth speeds cannot support significant increases in trade in services, the development of a knowledge economy, or reposition Tajikistan as a regional hub.”

Source: Asia Plus

To get detailed information about reserves, extraction, processing and export of antimony Asia-Plus has applied to the Ministry Industry and New Technologies (MoINT), the Main Geology Directorate and the Agency for Statistics.

The Agency for Statistics has advised to apply to relevant sectoral agencies “in order to get specific and detailed information.”

The sectoral agencies didn't answer for a month. Only on February 1, while giving a news conference on the results of the past year’s work, Ilhomjon Oimuhammadzoda, the head of the Main Geology Directorate under the Government of Tajikistan, noted that there are eleven antimony deposits in Tajikistan and nine of them are located in Zarafshon and Hisor valleys.

However, he did not answer the question of what volumes of antimony reserves Tajikistan has.

The biggest antimony reserves are reportedly concentrated at Jizhikrut and Konchok deposits in Ayni district, Sughd province. Ores of these deposits reportedly contain more than 15 percent of this semi-metal. Based on these stocks, the Anzob ore refinery has operated since the late 1940s.

According to data from a MoINT, Anzob Limited Liability Company (LLC) is now engaged in extracting antimony in Ayni district.

This company was established as the Tajikistan-U.S. joint venture in 2005. Tajikistan owned 51 percent of the shares and the United States’ Comsup Commodities Inc. assumed the 49% ownership interest in this enterprise. In September 2006, Comsup Commodities Inc. repurchased Tajikistan’s share in the company, becoming the only owner of “Anzob” LLC.

The company later built a plant on processing ores and producing a mercury-antimony concentrate there.

According to proven reserves of antimony Tajikistan ranks third globally (following China and Thailand) in Asia and the first among the CIS member nations.

Concentrates of mercury-antimony ores of Tajikistan are processed in other countries. They were processed in Kyrgyzstan one time, but after unilateral closure of border by Kyrgyzstan in late April 2021, Tajikistan’s concentrates of mercury-antimony ores have been processed in China.

It is to be noted that according to some sources, Tajikistan’s antimony deposits are stated to be the largest in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region.

An article by Bryant Harris, published in DefenseNews on June 8 last year, in particular, notes that antimony is now on the front lines of recent congressional efforts to shore up the strategic reserve of rare earth minerals, known as the national defense stockpile. Antimony is reportedly a critical mineral that is vital to producing ammunition.

The article notes that the House Armed Services Committee “took its first stab at addressing China’s grip on the antimony supply chain in draft legislation” it released on June 8.

A report accompanying the bill reportedly notes that the committee is concerned over recent geopolitical dynamics with Russia and China and how that could accelerate supply chain disruptions, particularly with antimony.

China is the largest producer of mined and refined antimony and a major source of imports for the United States, the report says, noting that China is “losing market share with Russia, the world’s second-ranked producer,” with Tajikistan gaining ground in the global market as the world’s third-largest supplier of antimony.

The U.S. Defense Department reportedly submitted its own legislative proposal to Congress in May last year, asking lawmakers to authorize US$253.5 million in the defense authorization bill to procure additional minerals for the stockpile.

A lead-antimony alloy is also used in batteries. Other uses of antimony alloys include type metal (in printing presses) and cable sheathing. Antimony compounds are also used to make flame-retardant materials, paints, enamels, glass and pottery.

Source: Asia Plus

The Dushanbe-Khujand highway is still closed traffic as the risk of further avalanches in Varzob district remains high.

According to the Emergencies Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, heavy snowfalls on February 1 caused three avalanches in Maikhoura and Hushyori areas of Varzob district blocking the highway on the 65th and 66th kilometers. The work on clearing the highway of snow is still under way.

The Emergencies Committee said on February 1 that 21 avalanches have occurred in Tajikistan since January 1 this year.

The risk of further avalanches reportedly remains high on some sections of Dushanbe-Varzob-Agni-Khujand highway (Sighed province), Dushanbe-Sango and Dushanbe-Lakhs highways (Rasht Valley in eastern Tajikistan), Vans-Khorog, Khorog-Ishkashim and Khorog-Murgab highways in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).

To ensure the safety of drivers on the winter road and provide emergency assistance, rapid rescue trams of the Emergencies Committee regularly patrol different sections of roads in mountain areas.

While most roads are open, the Emergencies Committee advices people not to travel to mountain areas unnecessarily.

According to data from the Hydrometeorology Agency (Hydromet), heavy snowfalls will continue in mountain areas until February 3.

Source: Asia Plus

On Thursday February 2, President Emomali Rahmon signed an order on holding three contests in the country this year.

The following contests are expected to be held this year: “Furughi Subhi Donoi Kitob Ast” (Knowledge Is a Shine of Dawn); “Tojikiston -- Vatani Azizi Man” (Tajikistan Is My Native Land); and “Ilm – Furughi Marifat” (Science Is the Beacon of Knowledge).

Relevant government bodies are ordered to hold these contests at a high organizational level in all regions of the country.

The Ministry of Finance is ordered to allocate 3.75 million somonis to carry out the “Tojikiston -- Vatani Azizi Man” contest, 3.895 million somonis to carry out the “Furughi Subhi Donoi Kitob Ast” contest, and 4.085 million somonis to carry out the “Ilm – Furughi Marifat” contest.

In all, more than 11.3 million somonis will be provided for the holding of these contests from the Reserve Fund of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Source: Asia Plus

The National Commissioner for Human Rights will verify the fact of use of torture against the jailed blogger Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda, Muqim Ashourov, the head of the Department for State Protection of Civil and Political Rights, Tajik Ombudsman’s Office, told reporters in Dushanbe on February 2.

According to him, none of Pirmuhammadzoda’s relatives contacted them on this matter.

“Yes, I read about it in the media, but no one has complained to us about this,” said Ashourov. “However, regardless of this, the Ombudsman intends to verify this fact during this month.

It was also noted during the news conference that the Ombudsman also plan to meet with other jailed journalists – Daler Imomali and Abdulloh Ghurbati.

In all, seven Tajik independent journalists and bloggers, namely Mamadsulton Mavlonazarov, Abdulloh Ghurbati, Daler Imomali, Zavqibek Saidamini, Khoushrouz Jumayev, Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoyeva and Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda were jailed last year.

They were sentenced to prison terms of between seven and twenty-one years following their conviction on charges of spreading false information, participation in extremism community and collaboration with banned organization.

The journalists themselves and their relatives reject these charges as absolutely unfounded.

International groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have called on the Tajik government to release the reporters and end its campaign against the free press.

A report released by the CPJ on December 14 says arrest and conviction of independent journalists and bloggers makes Tajikistan the leading jailer in Central Asia.

The report, in particular, notes that the prisoners were tried secretly behind closed doors in detention centers, not courts, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms amid allegations of torture.

Ranked 152nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2022 World Press Freedom Index, Tajikistan has fallen 36 places in the index since 2015.

Source: Asia Plus