The poverty-stricken republic of Tajikistan received Friday a Japanese government grant of 16 million dollars aimed at easing economic reforms and alleviating poverty in the former Soviet state, officials said.
Some 80 per cent of the Central Asian republic's 6.1 million population live below the official poverty line, while the minimum wage stands at one dollar.
About one million people in the drought-hit country are in danger of starvation this winter unless emergency food supplies are provided, the international federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent aid organisations said in a report issued this month. |
