DHAKA: Tajikistan’s long-running president Emomali Rakhmon was inaugurated for a fourth term on Saturday, as he promised to alleviate the grinding poverty in the former Soviet country.

Rakhmon, who has led Tajikistan since 1992, won November 6 polls with a landslide victory of 84 percent against a field of virtually unknown candidates, extending his presidency by seven years.

In his inaugural speech, he vowed to reduce poverty levels in the country, whose economy relies heavily on remittances sent by migrant workers doing manual labour in Russia.

‘The level of poverty will fall to 30 percent by 2015 and to 20 percent by 2020,’ he promised in a speech shown live on all the country’s television channels, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1731 HRS, NOV 16, 2013
RoR/RIS