World Bank

The term of office of the World Bank Director for Central Asia ends

Annette Dixon, World Bank Country Director for Central Asia, completes her work in the region in December and moves to the new position of Regional Director for South East Asia. As part of her farewell trip to the Central Asian region, A. Dixon last Thursday completed her two-day visit to Tajikistan as the outgoing regional director with the aim of holding final meetings with her Tajik partners.

Annette Dixon’s top priorities as World Bank Country Director for Central Asia were to lead country teams and programs in the five Central Asian republics, as well as focusing on the preparation and implementation of country strategies tailored to the specific development challenges of each country and jointly with key development partners, with the aim of promoting regional cooperation in Central Asia for the integration of the economies of the five countries in the region as a whole and with the world economy.

— During the last ten years of my work in the region and during my visit to Tajikistan, I see that the country has made significant progress after the endured civil war and economic crisis, — said A. Dixon. “However, the country needs further acceleration and deepening of reforms in order to underpin its growth and achieve sustainable development,” she said, adding that their primary goal has always been to strive to improve the lives of ordinary people in Tajikistan..

According to the World Bank, under the leadership of A. Dixon, in addition to investment projects, as well as analytical and advisory services, the World Bank resumed its financial support for development policies for the second generation of economic reforms in Tajikistan. Tajikistan was awarded two program grants for development policy, they supported the important reforms that the country needed in order to move towards economic growth and the development of effective systems..

Recently, the WB approved three emergency relief projects to tackle problems with electricity, food security and nutrition for mothers and children. These emergency grants were issued by the World Bank in response to the severe energy crisis in Tajikistan last winter and the complex food crisis resulting from the global food and energy crisis. The purpose of these projects is to provide assistance to thousands of vulnerable residents of Tajikistan.