The China Development Bank, a policy bank, will provide loans to
Kazakhstan to build power grids, an official from Kazakhstan said
yesterday.
"An agreement on the loans will soon be signed," Mukhamediyev
Saken, general representative of Kazakhstan's Chamber of Commerce
and Industry in China, told China Daily on the sidelines of
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Industry and Business
Forum.
"The power grids to be built in Kazakhstan will transmit power
to China," he said. He did not disclose any further details.
At the forum, the Export and Import Bank of China signed a
US$296 million loan agreement with the Finance Ministry of
Tajikistan on building and renovating a highway connecting
Tajikistan's capital city Dushanbe with Uzbekistan.
The highway, stretching 355 kilometers, is the largest road
construction project in Tajikistan and also the largest joint
infrastructure project since the founding of the SCO in 2001.
The highway project is one of the US$900 million worth of
lending commitments China made in 2004 to the other five member
states.
The two sides also signed a loan agreement for 220-kilovolt
power transmission lines, another project in the US$900 million
package.
Also yesterday, Tebian Electric Apparatus Co Ltd from northwest
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region signed a
contract with Tajikistan's State Power Holding Co on 500-kilovolt
south-north high-voltage power transmission lines.
Transport, power, telecommunications and energy are major areas
for SCO member states to seek cooperation, business people
attending the forum said.
Road transport, a major means of traffic for the six neighboring
countries, will be a priority for the SCO, Feng Yulin, vice
minister of communications, said at the forum.
China is putting money into building 12 highways leading to the
other five states, Feng said, adding that five are now under
construction, stretching to a total length of 5,200 kilometers.
(China Daily June 16, 2006)