Tajikistan Foreign Direct Investment Doubles In H1 2022

Most investments from China into mining gold and semi-conductor applicable minerals

Tajikistan has recorded a doubling of foreign direct investment inflows in the first half of 2022, according to Sadi Kodirzoda, the Chairman of the State Committee for Investment and State Property Management of Tajikistan.

Kodirzoda stated that foreign direct investments in Tajikistan from January through June 2022 increased by 2.1 times compared to the same period of last year – up to US$100.6 million, an average of US$16.67 million per month.

“The majority of foreign direct investments in the first half of 2022 was directed to the country’s mining industry (US$89 million)” Kodirzoda said. He also noted that China, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Great Britain accounted for the largest share in the total volume of foreign direct investment received during the period. In 2021 the total volume of foreign direct investments made into the Tajikistan’s economy amounted to US$340 million.

Tajikistan has rich deposits of gold, silver, and antimony. The largest silver deposits are in Sughd Province, where Tajikistan’s largest gold mining operation also is located. Russia’s Norilsk nickel company has explored a large new silver deposit at Bolshoy Kanimansur. More than 400 mineral deposits of some 70 different minerals have been discovered in Tajikistan, including strontium, tungsten, molybdenum, bismuth, salt, lead, zinc, fluorspar, and mercury.

Much of the 2022 investment has been due to the opening of a new gold processing plant built by China’s Talco Gold, at a cost of around US$136 million. Talco Gold is a joint venture between the Talco Aluminum Company, a local Tajik company, and China’s Tibet Huayu Mining. The mine will produce up to 2.2 tons of gold and 21,000 tons of antimony annually, employing some 1,500 workers, according to government officials. Antimony is a metallic crystalline commonly used in semi-conductor manufacturing.

China is by far Tajikistan’s main source of foreign direct investment. In 2021, businesses from China invested more than US$211 million in Tajikistan, an amount that accounted for nearly 62% of Tajikistan’s total FDI. Those investments mainly went toward the extraction and processing of lead, zinc and tin ores, and the mining of precious and semi-precious gems and metals.

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