BISHKEK, JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Czech company that Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev was lauding for agreeing a multi-million-dollar deal to build new hydropower stations may not even exist.
Less than a week after a triumphant Mr Atambayev was quoted in media talking up Liglass, a company based in a provincial Czech town, as the new backers of a hydropower project that Russia backed out of in 2015, it has emerged that even his own diplomats were warning him that the company only appears to exist on paper.
Kyrgyzstan has staked much of its future economic potential on developing its hydropower. The deal was considered important because
Russia’s Rushydro pulled out of a $700m agreement to develop the hydropower stations in 2015.
Liglass had, according to Mr Atambayev, promised to pay $37m for a 50% stake in the Upper Naryn HPP, which includes two major hydropower projects, and to build and operate a string of smaller hydropower stations.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)