DUSHANBE, June 26, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- President Emomali Rahmon has expressed hope that China’s Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co., Ltd (TBEA) will speed up work on construction of a 500-kV power grid that will link power systems of southern and northern regions the country.

President Rahmon made this remark in Kulob yesterday, while inaugurating the power-transmission line Lolazor-Khatlon.  

He hailed the power grid Lolazor-Khatlon as a step towards improvement of electricity supplies to the region.  It was notated that he Lolazor-Khatlon, built by China’s TBEA, will allow improving electricity supplies to the eastern part of Khatlon and reducing technical and commercial electricity losses from 14 percent to 3.2 percent and electricity savings will amount to 180 million kWh a year.  

The head of state expressed confidence that TBEA will speed up the work on construction of the power-transmission line South-North. 

We will recall that an agreement on construction of a 500-kilovolt 350-kilometer electricity transmission line South-North linking Tajikistan''s southern and northern regions was signed by Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric system) power holding and China’s TBEA in Dushanbe in April 2006.  The estimated budget for the project is $267 million.  Tajikistan’s share in this project is some $37 million. 

China’s Eximbank has provided funds for this project as part of its $900 million preferential loan to member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).  During the convocation of the SCO Summit in Beijing, Eximbank signed preferential export buyer’s credit agreement with Tajikistan on June 15, 2006.  The signed agreement is mainly focused on infrastructure projects, which have a great strategic bearing on the development of national economy and people’s living level in the country.  The source at a NBT said that the loan provided under the agreement carries an annual interest rate of 2.2 percent and is repayable over 25 years with a seven-year grace period on principal payment.