Narrative Report
of PO «Tajikistan Free Market Centre» on holding essay contest
“The receipt of economic miracle for Tajikistan” and
Summer School of Economic Freedom
Tajikistan Free Market Centre in partnership with the financial support of the Friedrich Naumann
Foundation, "Atlas" Economic Research Foundation and the International Network “For a Free
Society” in June, 2013 organized essay contest on topic “The receipt of economic miracle for
Tajikistan”.
According to the results of the contest in the period from June 29 to July 4, was also organized
Summer School of Economic Freedom.
The aim of the competition is to encourage young talent, enabling them to discover their abilities
and demonstrate their vision of economic development in Tajikistan. The contest invited Tajik
students, graduates and young professionals between the ages of 18 and 30.
The aim of the school was to gather the most motivated and talented young people to use the
unique content of lectures, group sessions and other formats, affect their outlook through the
perception of free-market ideas.
Event statistics:
Essay contest statistics:
Totally participated in essay - 35 persons
Summer school statistics:
Totally participated - 28 persons
Including:
Organizers/Moderators - 3 persons
Experts/Trainers - 4 persons
Participants - 21 persons
List of participants attached.
In Summer School participated the young people from different regions of Tajikistan, who
became finalists in essay contest.
The main issues discussed at the school - What have been done in those countries where is an
economic miracle now? What are the economic, social and institutional reforms necessary for the
country to go from poverty to sustainable prosperity? What economic concepts define the vector
of development of the economy of the leading countries now?
Participants took part in lectures, discussions, accompanied by interesting materials and
economic games, and group work, the results of which were announced in the last day of class by
the presentations of concepts of development separate spheres of Tajikistan’s economy. For this
the participants were divided into 7 groups of 3 persons each and have individual themes as a
reference: 1. The public administration reform, 2. Tax and budget reform, 3. Pension Reform, 4.
The reform of the international trading system, 5. The reform of health care and education, 6.
Land reform, 7. Reform of the financial sector.
In the final part of the program was held the awarding ceremony of the essay contest winners.
The winners and finalists of the essay contest were awarded with certificates and prizes, the most
active participants in the school were also awarded prizes - books, glasses with symbols, etc. All
other participants were also given disks where there was made a selection of books from classical
liberal thought and books, which describes cases of liberal reforms, as well as feature films "The
Aviator," "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" and "Atlas Shrugged."
In addition participants got specially made flash memory cards and branded T-shirts with
symbols, thus also has been achieved the high representative level of event.
School’s agenda attached.
Project results:
The essay contest and a summer economic school gave to the active Tajik youth opportunity not
just to acquire applied knowledge, but also increasingly expand their ideological positions on
issues of market economy, free trade, private property, and taxation. As well to meet a wellknown foreign experts and reformers.
Contest participants in a short essay the through its own analysis of the economic, historical,
cultural, and other factors described their view of economic prospects of Tajikistan. Although
many works were initially interesting, in fact the absolute majority of the participants did not
have a holistic "vision" for the future of Tajikistan, especially in the context of a liberal
philosophy.
Within 5 days, participants learned - what is the economic way of thinking, how works exchange
and market economy and what the consequences of interference in a free market by the state.
How showed the presentations of participants on the last day of school, on the basis of the
knowledge they largely managed to learn the basis of liberal philosophy and demonstrate their
own, yet basic, but meaningful reform prescriptions for Tajikistan in the spirit of the free market.
An educational and ideological goal settled in the project was largely achieved because during
school participants got a large amount of information both during the lectures and self-study.
Many participants have managed to significantly enhance their knowledge and most participants
became closer to the ideas of the free market
The main short-term effect of holding the school has been greater interest to study of economics
and participation in public life. The participants of the event were able to see the importance and
necessity of economic knowledge, as well as the validity and effectiveness of the principle of the
free market.
Organizing problems:
The main problem is the low level of literacy among Tajik youth. Each year it becomes harder to
find actors whose knowledge allows perceiving more complex content that is given at the
summer school. In addition there is a problem with the knowledge of Russian and English among
the youth. This further limits the number of potential participants in large-scale events, as the
most interesting experts are involved from abroad.
There is a problem with the experts, because interesting local experts who share the ideals of the
free market almost absent, and we have to seek foreign experts, who rarely have the desire to
come to Tajikistan.
The high cost of air tickets in all directions, and higher rates of fees affect the cost of such largescale events. For this reason, lecturers on most of the activities that are conducted by the TFMC,
became the staff of the Centre.
In addition to this kind of problem in Tajikistan is difficult to hold large events due to
undeveloped logistics and poor quality of service in many areas. However, the Centre was able to
solve these problems and the quality level of activities was high.
The implementation of sustainable change:
After the School, the TFMC plans to actively communicate with school participants, invite them
to our regular activities – Free Market Clubs, Webinars, Debate tournaments, etc.
In the long term, it’s possible to involve the brightest and most active young people who have
undergone a summer school in Center's activities, the formation of their student clubs and other
communities to spread the free market ideas.
Photos:
Following the tournament prepared a special photo report (attached).
Materials in mass media:
The information on event was published in central Tajik mass media:
http://tjinform.com/ru/news/20130607/07420.html
http://menu.tj/afisha/konkurs-e-sse-retsept-e-konomicheskogo-chuda-dlya-tadzhikistana/
http://www.migration.tj/new/index.php/ru/home-rus/763-jjgtfgfyh
http://nm.tj/economy/9130-konkurs-esse-recept-ekonomicheskogo-chuda-dlya-tadzhikistana.html
http://khovar.tj/rus/37185-konkurs-esse.html
After the holding the Summer School, several articles were also published in mass media:
http://blogiston.tj/index.php/blogi/letnyaya-shkola-ekonomicheskoj-svobody-itogi
http://rus.ozodi.mobi/a/25036179.html
http://www.ca-news.org/news:1073164/
The essay of contest winner was published on one of the popular media portal:
http://rus.ozodi.org/content/tajik-economic-miracle/25036360.html
Suggestions for further activities:
Conducting an essay contest showed the success of the Summer School and at the same time the
need for this kind of event, so the TFMC is planning to hold them annually.
Considering how interesting economic debate format was used during the school should
continue to actively use the debate as a popular and effective form of economic knowledge
sharing among Tajik youth.
For this purpose the Center considers necessary to hold a special Debate Championship - "Free
Market League" at the national level, by involving participants from different regions. The basic
idea of the championship is to use a large number of topics (resolutions), for efficient
popularizing the free market ideas. At this time, developed a full project proposal in relation to
this idea and the Center will look for donors to implement it.
Considering that a significant part of the youth in Tajikistan, have a poor command Russian and
English, it is also advisable to undertake a similar summer school in Tajik. For this can be
attracted as expert Mr. Ramizpoor from Afghanistan, as well as one or two local experts. After
finding the appropriate financing, the Center plans to hold this kind of event.
Konstantin Bondarenko,
Chairman of Tajikistan Free Market Centre
Nozim Ishankulov,
Executive Director of Tajikistan Free Market Centre