Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajikistan turns down Kyrgyz request for extra power

DUSHANBE, JULY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s minister of energy, Usmonali Usmonzoda, said he had turned down a request from Kyrgyzstan for extra electricity because the Tajik power generating system did not have any spare capacity.

The inability of Tajikistan to send power to Kyrgyzstan shows just how interdependent countries in Central Asia are. It also comes at a time when extra scrutiny is being placed on the power generation systems in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as they build up to powering the World Bank-backed $1.2b CASA-1000 power system to Pakistan.

At a press conference in Dushanbe, Mr Usmonzoda said that, due to rising industrial activity, Tajikistan does not have spare capacity.

“Kyrgyzstan asked for 2.5b kWh of electricity at 2.5 cents/kWh,” he told reporters. “This is a large volume and, because of the emergence of new domestic energy consumers, we decided to refrain from the supply.”

Last year, Tajikistan signed a short term supply agreement with Kyrgyzstan to export 146m kWh over the winter for 2.5 cent/kWh.

Now, though, Tajikistan may be looking for a better price.

Independent Bishkek-based energy expert Rasul Umbetaliyev told the KyrTAG news agency: “The minister diplomatically avoided answering directly, but the price for electricity exports from Tajikistan is currently 3.5 – 7 cents/kWh.”

Tajikistan is investing heavily in its power generating systems. It has approved a $3.9b project to build the Rogun hydropower system.

But with its economy stalling and industrial production lying stagnant rather than rising, production problems and not excessive demand could be holding back Tajikistan’s power exports.

Its electricity distributor, Barqi Tojik, has piled up $1.5b in debt. It hasn’t paid for the electricity it bought from power stations and it is still waiting to be paid by its largest customers.

The government is planning to split Barqi Tojik and bail it out.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Tajikistan to open railway to the south

DUSHANBE, JULY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan has finished building a new railway connecting the capital city with the south, that avoids the headache of passing through Uzbekistan.

The Dushanbe- Kurgan Tyube-Kulob route effectively lifts its southern region out of economic isolation and removes Uzbekistan’s ability to close the route at will and use it as a bargaining tool. The Soviet Union had built Tajikistan’s railway through parts of Uzbekistan to avoid the more challenging Pamiri terrain.

Usmon Kalandarov, deputy director of the Tajik Railways company, said that the railway, which will be opened on Aug. 24, was built with the financial support of Chinese Eximbank.

“The construction of five bridges and three tunnels on this road has been financed by the Chinese bank Eximbank with a loan of 72m somoni ($9.2m),” he said at a press conference.

In 2011, in retaliation for plans to build a dam that would divert water away from its cotton crops, Uzbekistan cut the original railway line. Other than a dangerous and unreliable single road that weaved its way through the Pamir mountains, this effectively cut off the south of the country.

Sardor, a 52-years-old local trader, told The Conway Bulletin correspondent in Dushanbe that he has been waiting for the railway to be finished.

“I bring fruits and vegetables from southern towns to Dushanbe and vice-versa. It is inefficient for me to use trucks, they are expensive and take a long time,” Sardor said as he sold melons. “I think the new railway will be good for me because I will pay less to transport goods, which will not have to go through Uzbekistan and be in trouble like before.”

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

China pursues Tajik gold

JULY 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese power engineering company TBEA received a licence to develop the Eastern Duoba and Upper Kumarg gold mines. The company, which won a tender to build a thermal power plant in Dushanbe in 2014, completed exploration works at the two mines in June. Chinese investment in Tajikistan has grown significantly in the past decade.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Chinese and European investors to buy Tajik fertiliser

JULY 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government said that Chinese and European investors have shown interest in buying TojikAzot, a debt-ridden fertiliser plant in the southern province of Khatlon. TojikAzot stopped operations in 2008 when it halted gas imports from Uzbekistan. The company was privatised in 2002, when Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash bought a 75% share in the company. Mr Firtash was later accused of illegally buying the plant and a local court invalidated the privatisation in 2014.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

IMF considers loan to Tajikistan

JULY 26 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Negotiations for a $500m IMF loan are continuing, Jamoliddin Nuraliyev, deputy chief of Tajikistan’s Central Bank told local media. The IMF has scheduled a visit to the country in August to lay out details for the loan. Mr Nuraliyev said that the country needs support to see it through a “difficult economic period.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

China to build piplene between Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

JULY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — China will go ahead with the construction of a fourth line of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, officials said. Luo Wei Dong, a deputy at China’s ministry of commerce told the Kremlin- funded Sputnik news agency that the pipeline will be built in the near future and will increase the overall capacity by 54% to 85b cubic metres/year.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Car sales fell in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s customs agency said that the country imported around 1,300 cars in H1 2016, a drop of 80% compared to the same period last year. Earlier reports said that car imports in Kyrgyzstan have also dropped in H1 2016. Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are two of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world and their economies have been hit hard by a recession in Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Tajikistan’s aluminum smelter increases production

JULY 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s state-owned aluminium smelter TALCO said it produced 73,100 tonnes of aluminium in H1 2016, a 13% increase over the same period last year. Low commodity prices, though, meant it sold aluminium at a price range of $1,400-$1,600/tonne. Production costs have reached $2,000/tonne.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Tajikistan plans EEU talks

JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan could soon join the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union, Abdufattoh Goib, head of the Border Service, told local media. Mr Goib said the government had instructed officials to join EEU working groups to study access requirements. Earlier this month, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of CIS affairs at the Russian Duma, said that Tajikistan might join next year.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Tajikistan confiscates Iranian products

DUSHANBE, JULY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan have banned the import of dozens of Iranian products, an apparent retaliation for a visit made by Tajik opposition leader Muhiddin Kabiri to Tehran last year.

Mr Kabiri is the exiled leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan which had once been the biggest opposition party in the country. It was hounded and broken up last year with most of its leadership imprisoned.

Tajk President Emomali Rakhmon has said that that he wants Mr Kabiri extradited from Europe, where he now lives. Instead, Iran’s leadership invited him to a theology conference last year in Tehran where he met with Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ali Homanai.

Now, in a possible retaliation, Tajikistan’s government standards agency has said that many Iranian imports do not meet their health standards and don’t carry product descriptions in Tajik. They have been banned.

In Dushanbe, the Tajik Agency for standardisation, metrology, and certification said it had seized 664 tonnes of good from Iran this year.

Ibodullo Kubodiyon, the head of the agency, said at a news briefing that some Iranian companies have stopped importing products to Tajikistan.

“Food products imported by these companies did not meet the established TajikStandart requirements, the products also did not have proper labelling. In particular, there was no description of the goods in Tajik language,” he said.

Tajikistan and Iran have generally made awkward allies. They share cultural and linguistic similarities but their approach to religion differs.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)