“Reviving Uzbekistan’s and Tajikistan’s sustainable Ikat and Silk RUTSIS”

A three-day event will be held in Dushanbe dedicated to reviving and producing silk and ikat in Tajikistan. As part of the activities foreseen under the project “Reviving Uzbekistan’s and Tajikistan’s sustainable Ikat and Silk (RUTSIS)”, supported by the SWITCH-Asia Grant Programme, the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Tajikistan together with the team from RUTSIS, UNIDO and other partners are organizing the “Atlas” Festival in Tajikistan between the 6^th  and the 8^th of June 2021.

The first days of the Atlas Festival will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the 6^th of June 2021. The festival programme includes a private display of atlas products from leading designers of Tajikistan and invited designers of Uzbekistan. The skills of the designers will be assessed by an international jury. At the end of the show, the best designers, manufacturers of Central Asian ikats (atlas and adras), as well as silk producers will be awarded with valuable gifts and prizes. In the afternoon, a B2B meeting of silk and iakt producers from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will take place.

The second day of the event will take place in the NGO “Creative Development of Tajikistan”. On this day, the RUTSIS project organizes a discussion on geographical indications (GI) for ikat- and sericulture products from the region, where representatives of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will take part. During the afternoon session there will be a second round of B2B meetings between producers of both countries.

On the third day of the festival, a round table on policies in the sericulture sector as well as potentials for ecolabelling silk products made in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will take place in the conference hall of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tajikistan.

The overall objective of the EU funded SWITCH-Asia programme is to promote sustainable and inclusive growth, contribute to the economic prosperity and poverty reduction in Central Asia and to a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient and circular economy.

RUTSIS project covers a wide range of issues affecting the creation of sustainable production and opportunities for improvement in the ikat and silk value chains in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The project activities focus on:

• Conducting a needs assessment and informing enterprises about possibilities in value chain, taking into account the requirements of sustainable production;
• revitalizing and modernizing local silk and ikat value chains;
• conducting educational trainings and seminars for silk and ikat manufacturers, as well as educational institutions in this field,
• providing advice to specialized educational institutions that train personnel for the silk industry;
• revival of the use of environmentally friendly dyes;
• organization of regional events, cooperation exchanges in the B2B format and other events with the participation of silk producers
• introducing eco-labelling and ultimately creating opportunities for international recognition of environmentally friendly silk and ikat products from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

This project is launched under the European Union SWITCH Asia programme with the participation of representatives of a consortium, which includes organizations and consulting companies from Germany, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, including: adelphi research gGmbH (Germany), Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tajikistan, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan, NGO ” Tourism Development Center” (Tajikistan), Margilan Crafts Development Centre (Uzbekistan) and Burg Giebichenstein University of Arts and Design, (Germany).