Tajikistan keen on garments, tea from India: Envoy

Tajikistan ambassador to India Jalolov Mirzosharif Friday pitched for more bilateral trade in sectors like garment and tea. Speaking at a session organized by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, the envoy said the ties between the two countries had been nurtured through the ages.

The economic relationship between India and Tajikistan was elevated to Strategic Partnership in 2012 making Tajikistan the third central Asian country to sign such agreement with India, he said.

On bilateral trade with India, he said in 2016, the Tajik Chamber of Commerce and Industry and FICCI formed a joint business council to carry forward trade.

Also, there are regular exhibitions of Indian exporters in Tajikistan, he said. He said there is also regular air freight between New Delhi and Dushanbe and Delhi-Moscow-Dushanbe apart from rail traffic between Mumbai-Bandar Abbas-Dushanbe. However, the envoy said that Indian products like jackets, T-shirts, and boots had great visibility in Tajikistan some years back.

"Others like China took up the opportunity but Indian producers and exporters perhaps could not keep pace," Mirzosharif said. On the prospects of Indian tea, he said, "Indian tea used to have a good reputation in Tajikistan which is still there. But we are not getting Indian tea," he said.

Mirzosharif said Tajikistan has a virgin landscape and there are a number of tourism projects in his country. FIEO Eastern Region Chairman Nari Kalwani said the bilateral trade between India and Tajikistan rose from USD 20.44 million in 2016-17 to USD 23.97 million in 2017-18.

Kalwani listed some of the potential areas as textiles, tea, and coffee along with publishing equipment and materials.