CIVIL SOCIETY
George Camm
1/05/09
It’s an open secret that Tajikistan’s economy is in trouble. Yet despite dire predictions, Dushanbe will soon boast at least four new five-star hotels. The complexes scattered around the city center are part of a building surge that started two years ago when money from Russia’s energy-driven boom began trickling down to the Central Asian country.
Construction on many projects - not just hotels, but shopping complexes, apartments and office buildings -- has continued even as concern about the economy has deepened, in part because the guest palaces are seen as a status symbol that can bring a measure of prestige to Dushanbe, locals say. But some see a Potemkin village behind the shiny new facades. Speculation is rife about where the money came from, with many suspecting it’s all somehow related to graft among members of the political elite. Others in Dushanbe think the construction spree is unjustifiable when the country is gripped by persistent shortages of electricity and other basic necessities, and when many Tajiks are facing lean times due to the global financial crisis. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
"Who will stay in these hotels?" one local aid worker asked rhetorically. "They are prestige for the government when, once a year, it hosts an international conference; but for the rest of the year they will be empty. It’s not like we have tourists," he laughed.
Already, some recently completed buildings appear unoccupied. ’For Rent’ signs adorn glistening new buildings sitting empty in the heart of the city. Moreover, several cafes have closed on the central stretch of Rudaki Prospect, Dushanbe’s main thoroughfare.
Asked where the money is coming from, most analysts point to Russia, Turkey and India.
"Businessmen see prospects here, therefore they are building and investing in construction. We don’t have to forget that Dushanbe is a capital city, it will grow and there will be demand," said Muzaffar Olimov of the Sharq Informational-Analytical Center. "Some of the investors are business people. They would rather put their money in property because it’s a very stable sphere."
Another local analyst - the head of a think-tank who asked that neither she nor her organization be named - noted mixed reasons for the construction, much of it beyond government control. "People are provided by additional work opportunities," she said. "But for the mayor it is more about the prestige of Dushanbe. Some people say that instead of building five-star hotels, they could invest money in something else, but they don’t understand that it’s not the government’s money and projects."
Olimov agreed: "This money is not from the country’s budget. Even if the people are starving and blaming the government, government can’t do anything because this is not their money, it is business."
Not all of the new structures sit empty. The one new building that looks operational is the Palace of the Nation, alternatively loved and reviled by locals.
Behind a vast park on the city’s main boulevard, workers recently were putting the finishing touches on a perimeter fence measuring approximately three kilometers in circumference.
Until last year the wooded park housed rusting children’s rides and a lonely statue of Bolshevik founder Vladimir Lenin. Workers have since cleared away the trees and rides giving passersby on Rudaki unobstructed views of President Imomali Rahmon’s grand new home, which sits about a kilometer back from the road. The park has been rechristened Master Rudaki’s Garden, in honor of the 10th century poet born in what is now Tajikistan.
Reactions to the palace complex are varied.
"It is a mixed blessing when people from the countryside come to the capital and see the new palace and construction," said the Tajik aid worker. "They will be proud, but when they have no power and come see such a huge building [the palace] with so many lights, some will grow angry."
Editor's Note: George Camm is the pseudonym for a journalist working in Tajikistan.
