DUSHANBE, April 27, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest) has submitted four investment projects for consideration to open joint-stock company OJSC Kazakh-Tajik Joint Investment Fund, the GosKomInvest head Davlatali Saidov told reporters on April 26.

According to him, these investment projects stipulate construction of oil refinery, tomato paste producing enterprise, textile factory, and enterprise for mining and processing basalt in Tajikistan.

We will recall that the heads of state of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan signed an investment deal in Dushanbe in September 2007 during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s official visit to Tajikistan.  The sides agreed to set up a joint investment fund of 100 million U.S. dollars that will be used to invest in projects in Tajikistan.  Under the agreement, Kazakhstan provides 80 percent of the money for the fund.

The fund gives priority to the economic areas that are of interest of both countries: electric power generation, agriculture, the mining industry and other important spheres of the economy.

The minimum amount of investments provided by the Kazakh-Tajik Joint Fund is US$800,000 and the maximum amount of investments provided by it is US$8 million.

The Fund’s money cannot be used for implementation of projects aimed at manufacturing alcohol drinks and tobacco products as well as launching casinos.