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Eurasia
April 27, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 22
In total, Tajikistan attracted $1.1bn in foreign in- vestment last year. The bond issuance accounted for most of the rise in the Tajik national debt in 2017, recorded at 51.4% of GDP. International in- vestors have for the past year been oversubscrib- ing to debt issues by very weak emerging-market players, including Iraq, Kenya and Mongolia - Ta- jikistan was the latest to join them as an interna- tional bond issuer.
The ex-Soviet country has previously revealed plans to borrow $850mn across 2018-2020. The funds will be allocated for “the country's exit from a communication impasse, achieving energy inde- pendence and ensuring food security”, the report said. The overall financing is likely to cover part of the Rogun project. The investment is meant to end the country’s winter energy shortages as well as support its objective to become a regional energy exporter via the CASA-1000 project.
Tajikistan’s draft budget for 2018 projected the country will spend TJS1.1bn (€105.9mn) on servic- ing its external debt during the year.
Currently, the total capacity of Tajikistan’s hydro- power plants amounts to 5,190 MW, but ageing infrastructure makes only 3,600MW of that capac- ity usable. That, in turn, leads to chronic winter electricity shortages. The Rogun project envisages
installing six additional hydropower turbines, with a capacity of 600MW each, that, once fully opera- tional, will put an end to the winter woes.
Pietro Salini, chief executive officer of the Italian construction conglomerate Salini Impregilo, which won a $3.9bn contract for the construction of the embankment dam, said in February that the first hydropower unit of the Rogun project was set to launch in November.
Tajik authorities jump-started the construction of the controversial 335-metre dam on the Vakhsh River – a project seen as not only important for the country’s energy security but for President Emomali Rahmon’s popularity – in October 2016, two months after the death of the dam’s main opponent, Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov. Uzbekistan has previously objected to the infrastructure, first proposed as far back as 1959, saying that it might impact on irriga- tion available for its lucrative cotton crops.
In March, Uzbekistan officially reaffirmed that it no longer holds objections to the construction of the Rogun dam during Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s first official visit to neighbouring Tajikistan. Prior to last year’s debut bond, only $200mn had been allocated for the construction of the dam and work on it had long been stalled. Over three decades, only preliminary work was performed.