DUSHANBE, February 27, Asia-Plus  -- British company that has won a tender for buying open joint-stock company (OJSC) Tojikkhimprom (chemical plant in Yovon) currently waits for approval of the tender’s results by the Tajik government, Asia-Plus has learned from an official with Tojikkhimprom.

The official has refrained from giving further details and telling name of the company that had acquired the plant. 

The State Committee for Investments and Management of State-owned Property has also not told Asia-Plus the name of the company and price, at which the plant had been sold.   

In the meantime, the official with Tojikkhimprom said that the plant has not operated for some six months and all workers were sent out for vacation last September already because of lack of finance.         

We will recall that the British company Enjik Chemical Co acquired OJSC Tojikkhimprom in June 2007.  However, the government revoked the privatization protocol in August 2007.  The State Committee for Investments and Management of State-owned Property returned to Enjik Chemical Co $200,000 that had been paid by the company as guarantee fee and prepared a new individual project for privatization of the enterprise in October 2007.  According to the Committee, Enjik Chemical Co has no complaint.     

We will recall that Enjik Chemical Co acquired OJSC Tojikkhimprom by international tender for 10.05 million somonis.     

The plant was supposed to pass into complete ownership of Enjik Chemical Co in 2009.  The company, in particular, undertook to invest 20 million dollars in modernization of the plant before 2009 as well as pay off the plant’s debts in an amount of 25 million somonis and create new jobs.   

 According to the State Committee for Statistics, OJSC Tojikkhimprom is the only enterprises in Tajikistan and one of three within the CIS area, producing different types of chemical goods such as caustic soda, liquid chlorine, chloride of lime, calcium hypochloride and other chemical goods.  The company was established in 1999 on the basis of the Yovon chemical plant and was registered with authorized capital of 15.3 million somonis.