Foreign and Military Affairs
Key facts about Tajikistan
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-24 11:32
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BEIJING - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will arrive in Tajikistan Wednesday for an official visit, during which he will attend the ninth prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The following is a brief introduction to the Central Asian country:
Tajikistan, officially named the Republic of Tajikistan, is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia with China bordering to the east, Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west and Kyrgyzstan to the north.
Dushanbe is the capital city.
Tajikistan has a total area of 143,100 square km and a population of 7.22 million. Tajiks who speak the Tajik language are the main ethnic group, although there is a sizable minority of Uzbeks and a small population of Russians.
The official language of Tajikistan is Tajik while Russian is widely spoken in business and for government purposes.
In recent years, the Tajik government adopted a series of policies and measures to boost the national economy and established a market-oriented economy. It also carried out privatization reforms.
In 2008, its gross domestic product (GDP) reached $5.134 billion, growing 7.9 percent year on year.
Tajikistan has a great hydropower potential, and its water reserves rank No. 8 on the world scale.
The industries of metallurgy, energy, construction materials, mechanics processing and manufacturing are important pillars of the national economy.
Since China and Tajikistan established diplomatic ties on January 4, 1992, the two countries' friendly relations have developed steadily, with frequent exchanges of high-level visits.
The two-way trade increases as well. In 2008, the bilateral trade volume stood at 1.5 billion dollars, up 186.2 percent year-on-year.
