Tajikistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, is counting on an influx of Chinese investment to cushion its economy from the reverberations of sanctions-hit Russia.
China is to invest at least $6bn in Tajikistan over the next three years, Jamoliddin Nuraliev, the country’s deputy finance minister, says in an interview with the Financial Times.
The planned investment – equivalent to two-thirds of Tajikistan’s 2013 gross domestic product and more than 40 times annual foreign direct investment – is the latest sign of China’s economic expansion into former-Soviet central Asia, as it seeks to secure natural resources and ensure stability in a region Chinese expatriates call Beijing’s “wild west”.