DUSHANBE, October 25, Asia-Plus -- Tajik Aluminum Company or TALCO (formerly Tajik Aluminum Plant or TadAZ) will not be privatized until we have means, Sharif Rahimzoda, Chairman of the State Committee for Investments and Management of State-owned Property, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe today.

He stressed TALCO is not just an aluminum plant but it is “a real policy.”  According to him, many foreign companies are ready to invest in modernization of this enterprise. 

“We are ready to cooperate with any investors to modernize the company and increase its capacities but there is no any necessity for privatization of it,” Rahimzoda said, noting that TALCO accounts for 49 percent of the volume of industrial goods produced in the country.  

Along with four other four facilities of natural monopoly such as Naftrason (oil product supply), Tajik Railways, Southern Drilling Operation Directorate, and Sughdnaftugaz (Isfara-based state company for extraction of oil and natural gas) TALCO is subject for restructuring.

 State Unitary Enterprise Tajik Aluminum Plant is located in the Tursunzoda district, 60 kilometers west of Dushanbe.  TALCO is the only aluminum plant in Central Asia.  Its rated capacity is 517,000 tons of primary aluminum.   Last year, TALCO produced 413,800 tons of aluminum.