Tajik President has called on nations participating in the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade (Casa-1000) Project to speed up the process of the implementation of the project.

In a statement delivered at a quadrilateral summit of CASA-1000 member nations in Pugus (Tajik president’s countryside residence in the Varzob district), Tajik leader noted on July 6 that the CASA-1000 is a key element of the regional energy market which will bring together producers and consumers of electricity in the regions.

According to him, Tajikistan has the ability to export electricity all year round by increasing the capacity of its production.   

Rahmon noted that the unique feature of the CASA-1000 is that this project helps to ensure the balance between the production of electricity in the countries of Central Asia and the consumption in the countries of South Asia, which face serious shortage of energy resources.

In addition, the CASA-1000 project will facilitate the introduction of new commercial standards and modern technologies, Tajik leader said.

At the same time, he noted that the project implementation process falls behind the deadlines.

“Therefore, we believe that it is vitally important to prevent the further slowdown of the implementation process of the CASA-1000 project and increase our joint efforts in certain areas,” President Rahmon noted.

He pointed to the necessity of ensuring the implementation of all activities in accordance with the agreed plans and deadlines;

Rahmon also noted that it was high time to adopt relevant decisions, and to start without delay the construction of separate components of the project in the territories of the four countries.

Tajik leader called on partners to support in every possible way the efforts of the Government of Afghanistan to start immediately the construction of a DC power transmission line on its territory – a component of the Project for which the tender processes have already been completed.

He underlined that construction of more than 1342 kilometers of high-voltage AC and DC power transmission lines, converter substations and the use of the latest equipment put additional and serious tasks for power engineering specialists.

“For timely solution of those tasks, there is a need for comprehensive support by participating countries of the project and development partners,” the Tajik president said.

According to him, the experience of implementation of the CASA-1000 project in recent years demonstrates the necessity of taking steps for optimization of the activities related with the project management mechanisms.

“The changing external and regional conditions, as well as challenges and threats of the modern world require from us the adoption of efficient and decisive measures for timely and fully completion of the project,” Rahmon said.

He noted that because of the delay in the implementation of the project, the participating countries annually lose more than 500 million USD in total.

“To this end, we propose holding regular meetings of the competent officials of the project participating countries,” said the Tajik president.  “In addition, we also propose considering the possibility of holding annual high-level meetings of the project participating countries.”