The delegation included Shukurjon Zuhurov, the chairman of the country's lower house of representatives, and saw the Tajiks call for investors to sign on to the dam project, which would help fulfill the pledge Ankara made last year to double trade with Tajikistan by the end of 2014. "Our country has been newly discovered," Zuhurov said as he argued that investments were picking up and the country was moving forward with its development goals. At the other end of the table were businesspersons assembled by the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), a business group focused on facilitating Turkish business overseas.
TUSKON head Rızanur Meral told the Anatolia news agency on Saturday that the meeting was a chance to focus on finding investments in an "important Central Asian country given its mineral riches and natural resources." He also said that investments in hydroelectricity might be promising given the fact that several major rivers originate in the country.
The dam project will see the construction of around 150 dams and facilities around the massive Rogun Dam, which has been under construction since 2008 and will be higher than the Empire State Building when completed. The project in turn has angered Uzbekistan, which claims that the project will put its upstream cotton fields under a high risk of flooding.
But as the Tajik government hails the project as a way to end the country's electricity dependency on its neighbors, it is eyeing Turkish investors and construction companies in hopes that the project can be completed in the next decade.
If so, it would help boost trade ties between the two countries, which said in an agreement last year that they would nearly double their annual trade to $1 billion by 2014. Trade was $600 million in 2011, $180 million more than in 2010. Sixty-four Turkish firms are currently operating in Tajikistan, primarily in the country's mining sector.