Michael Mills, a World Bank economist for Central Asia, presented an updated assessment of poverty in Tajikistan at a conference in Dushanbe on 28 October. Although poverty has fallen 17 percent since 1999, Tajikistan remains the poorest country in Central Asia, the report notes. In 2003, 64 percent of the population lived on no more than $2.15 a day. Mills said that labor migration, which has seen up to 1 million Tajiks, or 17 percent of the population, leave to seek higher wages in Russia, has somewhat alleviated poverty. But widespread corruption is a serious obstacle to reducing poverty, the report says. Fayzullo Kholboboev, an economic adviser to Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov, told the conference that the World Bank provides Tajikistan with $30 million-$40 million annually in infrastructure development funds. (ITAR-TASS)