The country’s central bank has launched a workshop on corporate governance practices for the shareholders, board members and managers of financial institutions.
The move supported by the World Bank aims to strengthen the financial sector, minimise fiscal risks, promote investment, foster private-sector growth, and ensure financial inclusion.
“The quality of corporate governance in the financial sector is largely synonymous with any definition of ‘health’ of the system and its ability to absorb economic, technological, and other shocks,” said Jan-Peter Olters, World Bank country manager in Tajikistan.
“The combination of confidence, soundness, and the effective of the board on the oversight over risk management defines the impact on economic development and growth.
“There is no sustainably growing economy without sound banks.”
The initiative was launched in the capital Dushanbe by Olters and Jamoliddin Nuraliev, the first deputy chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan.
More than 150 representatives from banks and microfinance institutions attended workshops in Dushanbe and Khujand.
In these events they examined the importance of corporate governance for financial institutions and the role of supervisory boards and corporate secretaries.
The initiative builds on lessons learnt since 2007, when the World Bank Group started supporting Tajikistan in strengthening corporate governance and developing a regulatory framework.
A recently launched Strengthening the Financial Sector Programme financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs supports the NBT in implementing recommendations of the 2015 Financial Sector Assessment Programme, the joint IMF/World Bank review of the country’s financial sector.
The aim is to improve corporate governance in banks and micro-finance institutions through policy work, training programmes, detailed assessment of select financial institutions, and the development of corporate governance manuals.
The World Bank Group has provided more than $1.5bn in grants, concessional credits and trust funds to Tajikistan in the last 25 years.
