Reuters
December 18

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $90 million loan for Central Asian neighbours Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to help boost the efficiency of the regional power system, the bank said. The bank said on its official website www.adb.org that the long-term loan, approved on Tuesday, would be used to promote regional energy trade and was seen as a first step to establishing a wholesale regional power market. The Central Asian power system, which in Soviet times linked regional neighbours Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, comprises 83 power plants with a total installed capacity of 25,000 megawatts.

"But since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, power trade has fallen by 80 percent as each country has focused on achieving power self-sufficiency," the site quoted Sean O'Sullivan, ADB Principal Infrastructure Economist, as saying.

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan hold 85 percent of the generation capacity in the Central Asian grid, and their enhanced power trading "is expected to encourage broader economic cooperation in this area within Central Asia", the bank said.

The project is to be completed by end-June 2006 for Tajikistan, entitled to $20 million, and by end-June 2007 for Uzbekistan which will receive $70 million.

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