Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has defined the electricity issues as the top obstacle for Tajik firms along with other problems.

Although the wait for an electrical connection decreased from 28.3 to 19.2 days, the share of firms experiencing power outages remained close to 60 percent, reads the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey 2013/2014 conducted by the EBRD and World Bank.

Despite the average duration of power outages decreased during the mentioned period in the report, but they were more frequent.

The losses of the Tajik firms from the power outages remained very high although to decrease 18.8 percent to 14.4 percent of total annual revenue.

In BEEPS V, access to finance and competitors’ practices in the informal sector were defined among main obstacles faced by Tajik firms.

“The large firms were more concerned about tax administration than access to finance, noting that young firms complained most about access to finance and political instability. Most of the firms in Tajikistan faced limited access to finance,” the report reads.

Compared with BEEPS IV, the firms relied more on the internal funds and retained earnings to finance fixed assets purchases, according to the report.

“Moreover, a comparatively large share of fixed assets was financed through owners’ contributions (14.2%, the highest among the covered countries) and, in turn, a disproportionately small share through bank loans,” the report reads.

Competitors’ practices in the informal sector remained the third most severe obstacle, according to the report. It said the share of firms facing competition from the informal sector remained almost unchanged at around 35 percent.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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