Uzbekistan will provide a US$100 million loan to Tajikistan for import of Uzbek goods.  

Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) and Uzbekistan’s National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity have signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of trade financing.

The document was inked by Ruhullo Hakimzoda, Chairman of the Amonatbonk Board, and Alisher Mirsoatov, Chairman of the National Bank for Foreign  Economic Activity of Uzbekistan, in Dushanbe on March 9, according to the press center of the National Bank of Uzbekistan (NBU).   

The $100 million credit line will provided for implementation of the trade financing projects for the purpose of increasing the export of Uzbekistan’s goods and services (textiles, building materials, food products, household chemical goods, farm produce, electrical equipment, vehicles, etc.) to Tajikistan , the NBU press center says.

The US$100 million preferential loan will be transferred to one of commercial banks in Tajikistan.  “Low-interest loans will be provided to entrepreneurs who have specific business-plans on expansion of cooperation with Uzbek state-run and private companies,” a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview.           

Recall, Uzbekistan signed a similar agreement with Kyrgyzstan during Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov’s visit to Tashkent in December last year.  

A separate agreement was concluded in early February this year between Uzbekistan’s Uzpromstroybank and Asaka and Kyrgyzstan’s RSK Bank and Aiyl Bank on conditions for provision of this money.  

The first contract worth US$600,000 on delivery of Uzbek agricultural machines to Kyrgyzstan was signed in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, in mid-February.