Key Findings
CPMM in 2022 showed the following year-on-year changes in Tajikistan’s road transport data from 2021:
- Border-crossing time dropped from 4.7 hours to 4.1 hours.
- Border-crossing cost was down $1 to $85.
- Total transport cost declined from $609 to $579.
- SWOD slowed from 35.8% to 34.6%. SWD barely changed and was up from 20.0 in 2021 to 20.1 in 2022.
Table 3.15: Trade Facilitation Indicators for Tajikistan, 2020–2022
| Road Transport | |||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||
| TFI1 | Time taken to clear a border-crossing point (hour) | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.1 | |
| Outbound | 4.1 | 3.3 | 3.0 | ||
| Inbound | 5.0 | 5.3 | 4.7 | ||
| TFI2 | Cost incurred at border-crossing clearance ($) | 99 | 86 | 85 | |
| Outbound | 36 | 27 | 23 | ||
| Inbound | 133 | 114 | 116 | ||
| TFI3 | Cost incurred to travel a corridor section ($, per 500km, per 20-ton cargo) | 660 | 609 | 579 | |
| TFI4 | Speed to travel on CAREC Corridors (km/h) | 21.0 | 20.0 | 20.1 | |
| SWOD | Speed without Delay (km/h) | 37.8 | 35.8 | 34.6 | |
km = kilometer, km/h = kilometers per hour, SWOD = speed without delay, TFI = trade facilitation indicator.
Source: Asian Development Bank.
Table 3.16: Border-Crossing Performance in Tajikistan, 2020–2022
| BCP, Corridor and Direction of Trade | Duration, hours | Cost, $ | ||||||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||||
| Road Transport | ||||||||||
| Dusti | (3) | Outbound | 13.8 | 10.1 | 3.8 | 102 | 66 | 37 | ||
| Inbound | 4.0 | 2.8 | 2.2 | 91 | 82 | 79 | ||||
| Fotehobod | (2, 3, 6) | Outbound | 4.8 | 2.4 | – | 60 | 57 | – | ||
| Inbound | 2.5 | 4.7 | – | 200 | 160 | – | ||||
| Panji Poyon | (2, 5, 6) | Outbound | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 20 | 20 | 20 | ||
| Inbound | 7.5 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 188 | 188 | 185 | ||||
| Karamyk | (2, 3, 5) | Outbound | 2.4 | 2.7 | – | 32 | 21 | – | ||
| Inbound | 2.7 | 2.2 | – | 31 | 22 | – | ||||
| Guliston | (0) | Outbound | 3.0 | – | – | 43 | – | – | ||
| Inbound | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 33 | 24 | 22 | ||||
| Kulma | (0) | Outbound | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Inbound | 2.3 | 7.6 | 10.4 | 32 | 10 | 8 | ||||
| Jalgan | (2, 3, 5) | Outbound | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Inbound | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 153 | 69 | 69 | ||||
BCP = border-crossing point.
Source: Asian Development Bank.
Trends and Developments
Tajikistan’s corridor performance has provided no major surprises or sharp changes over the 3-year 2020–2022 period. Its average border-crossing time by road continued a steady improvement in 2022 with a 12.8% decline from 2021. Times were down at the Dusti, Panji Poyon, and Guliston BCPs but up at Kulma on the PRC border. The Kulma BCP is in a mountainous region and generally impassable and closed from December to April due to heavy snowfall. PRC exports to Tajikistan can pass through this route or transit through the Kyrgyz Republic. The latter is more conducive in terms of terrain, but transit can be affected by the current state of bilateral relations between the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan.
Border-crossing and total transport costs were both lower in 2022 than those of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajikistan’s transport sector has a large fleet of trucks and is highly competitive. This makes its road freight rates attractive to shippers. On the other hand, 2022 SWOD and SWD were the slowest in the CARs—for example, a SWOD of about 35 km/h compared with more than 50 km/h in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Turkmenistan, and 45 km/h in Uzbekistan. This is due to the country’s mountainous terrain and many winding roads. ADB supported the rehabilitation of the highway connecting Dushanbe and Khujand, but this trunk road involves more twists and turns and remains slower to navigate than the national highways in neighboring countries.
Tajikistan’s policymakers recognize that the logistics sector needs modernization. They have developed a national masterplan to guide the sector’s development, with the transport ministry tasked to lead implementation. The total budget amounts to $319 million and is to come from the government, development partners, and the private sector[1]. Container cargo, multimodal logistics, agro-logistic, transport, and logistics centers are all to be developed.
Tajikistan lacks the strong multimodal capacity needed to handle the containers that constitute most of the freight moving through its routes to and from the PRC. Inadequate temperature-controlled logistics is an obstacle to the further development of the agricultural sector. Spring comes earlier to the country’s Khatlon Province than it does in other parts of Central Asia, which should allow comparatively early ripening produce such as onions and lettuce to be exported to markets with different growing seasons. Modern infrastructure and temperature-control logistics would also enable Tajikistan’s agrobusinesses to store part of the produce and release it at later dates when market supplies become low. This would help to stabilize food prices in the country and benefit the transport sector, because the simultaneous harvesting and exporting of agricultural produce can generate volatility in trucking rates.
Tajikistan has made notable progress in trade facilitation. The country operates an online trade portal (https://tajtrade.tj) that provides information on importing, exporting, and transiting. It has launched a single window system that connects 11 agencies and covers 24 permits and documents (www.swcustoms.tj), as well as a system of national authorized economic operators (AEOs). The Tajikistan customs authority says registration and approvals under the AEO scheme have been limited to only one company so far due to the effects on many potential operators of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[1] ADB, www.adb.org/news/adb-help-improve-infrastructure-investment-climate-food-security-tajikistan.
Recommendations
Promote regional digitalization efforts.Pursuing joint TIR-Electronic Pre Declaration (EPD) and electronic Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (eCMR) efforts with Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and other CAREC members will be strategically beneficial for Tajikistan and the region overall. TIR-EPD and eCMR systems can reduce border-crossing times by enabling customs services to implement risk-based solutions by receiving shipment data electronically in advance. This would require capital expenditure for computers and communication hardware upgrades at key BCPs. Tajikistan should also discuss a deeper partnership on TIR-EPD with PRC customs authorities in Kashgar Prefecture since the PRC is also implementing the TIR systems.
Become a new South–Central Asia transit corridor.Trade between these two adjacent subregions remains unnecessarily low, and Tajikistan can serve as a transit corridor for expanding it. It could, for example, become a hub for Pakistan to distribute goods for onward transport to other parts of Central Asia. Tajikistan could also offer capacity-building programs on TIR and CMR to Pakistan.