Hokim Kholiqzoda meets Mark Bowman

On April 26, 2023, the Chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan, Kholiqzod Hokim Hikmatullo held a meeting with the delegation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) led by Mr. Mark Bowman, the Vice President for Policy and Partnership at EBRD, during which the sides discussed the issues of continuing mutually beneficial cooperation of the country's banking system.

The meeting was attended by EBRD Managing Director for Central Asia Ms.Zsuzsanna Hargitai, and Lead Sector Economist for Energy sector, in the Economics, Policy and Governance Department (EPG) of VP Policy and Partnership at the EBRD, Ms. Inna Yabbarova, and Leading Banker for Financial Institutions of the EBRD Office in Tajikistan, Bakhodur Yusupov.

Chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan Hokim Kholiqzoda expressed gratitude to the EBRD mission for many years of fruitful cooperation and constant support for the development of the country's economy, especially the financial and technical support of the banking system of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Then EBRD Vice President Mark Bowman noted with satisfaction the effective cooperation of the parties and stressed that despite the ongoing instability of the geopolitical situation, as well as the imposition economic sanctions against a number of states - trading partners, the macroeconomic indicators Tajikistan and its banking system were evaluated positively and significant advances have been made.

“We highly appreciate the support and assistance of development partners in the implementation of a dialogue between the credit financial institutions of Tajikistan and European banks in expanding correspondent relations with the leading banks of this Union. We will also be very pleased with the assistance of the EBRD in this direction,” said Hokim Kholiqzoda.

Mr. Mark Bowman expressed the EBRD's interest in the participation of the National Bank of Tajikistan in green economy programs implemented under the Greening Financial System Network (NGFS).

In recent years, the National Bank of Tajikistan has been actively implementing the reform of the payment system and digital financial services. In this context, taking into account the relations established between the EBRD and the Republic of Korea, the management of the National Bank of Tajikistan turned to the EBRD with a request to assist in the implementation of the planned projects by the NBT with the Korean national payment system KFTC.

As noted, the EBRD will continue to support the implementation of an inclusive reform to develop the banking system, which is the top priority for the National Bank of Tajikistan.

During the meeting, the parties emphasized the importance of attracting technical assistance from the EBRD to further strengthen the mechanisms for regulating and supervising the activities of credit financial institutions, including the issues of identifying, managing and reducing the impact of financial risks, conducting stress tests of banks and the banking supervision system under the Basel standards, issues of monetary policy and the implementation of monetary instruments, development of the financial market, strengthening the compliance system, increasing 

the capacity of insurance supervision in the field of financial statistics and analysis of the insurance market, developing and implementing a modern operational risk management system at the National Bank of Tajikistan.
At the end of the meeting, the parties showed mutual interest in expanding and strengthening fruitful cooperation.

Press Division
NBT