Tag Archives: Tajikistan

CASA-1000 officially launched in Tajik capital

DUSHANBE, MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Leaders from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan flew to Dushanbe to officially launch the start of construction of the CASA- 1000 project, which they hope will give regional trade a boost.

CASA-1000 is the $1.2b World Bank backed project that policy makers hope will transform the economies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, bolster stability in Afghanistan and boost power supplies in Pakistan.

The plan is simple — to build an electricity supply route from hydro- power stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, across Afghanistan and into Pakistan. But it has its detractors. Many analysts have argued that Afghanistan is simply too unstable to host a network of transmission lines and that power generation capacities in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are too temperamental.

Still, in Dushanbe, at the official ceremony to kick off production, the leaders were upbeat.

Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon, hosted the ceremony. He said that the project would work and that it would have a number of positive side effects.

“This will promote solutions to a number of social, economic and environmental protection problems in all four countries,” he was quoted by media as saying.

The CASA-1000 transmission line will run for 1,222km and should be completed by 2018. It will transmit 1,300 megawatts of electricity, most of it to Pakistan.

Also at the ceremony were Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov.

Western diplomats conceived the plan a few years ago as part of a new north-south Silk Road, although it has been the various local leaders with finance from the World Bank who have pushed it through.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Kyrgyz-Tajik CASA-1000, a ‘mad plan’ now nearing its launch

MAY 5 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — CASA-1000 is the power transmission project that most analysts dismissed as too madcap to work.

Conceived by US diplomats and regional officials sometime around 2010 when Hillary Clinton, then the US Secretary of State, was promoting her vision of a north-south Silk Road stretching from Central Asia to India, this was the project that was meant to fail.

Instead, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Afghanistan will officially launch its construction next week.

If all goes to plan, and security in areas of Afghanistan where the Taliban are active is a major concern, CASA-1000 should foster improved relations in the region and boost economies.

The World Bank is the project’s biggest backer, pledging more than half the estimated $1b cost to build the 1,222km transmission line and support systems.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kyrgyzstan secures $1.7b loan to push CASA-1000 forward

MAY 5 2016, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Despite securing a $1.7b finance deal to boost its power generating sector, Kyrgyzstan still has its work cut out to ensure that it can hit targets laid out in the ambitious CASA-1000 project which aims to send Tajik and Kyrgyz electricity to Pakistan and India, analysts said.

Next week heads of state from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan are due in Dushanbe to officially launch CASA-1000, heralded as a new epoch in Central Asia and South Asia trade relations.

And Kyrgyzstan’s $1.7b credit line, organised last week with the Islamic Development Bank, the International Development Association and the European Investment Bank, has come only just in time.

Kyrgyzstan needs the cash to bolster its power generating capacity which has faltered over the past six months. In December 2015, transmission line faults damaged the 1,200MW Toktogul power plant, which generates 40% of Kyrgyzstan’s electricity. The outage triggered shortages and worried senior officials in the Kyrgyz government and their international partners.

At the same time, Russia pulled out of a $2b deal to build a dam and a 2,000MW power station at Kambar-Ata, on the Naryn river in central Kyrgyzstan, because a recession had sucked dry its funds.

Marat Kazakbayev, a political analyst based in Bishkek said Kyrgyzstan can currently meet its export demands but at a heavy cost.

“Electricity exports may be carried out at the expense of domestic electricity supply for the population of Kyrgyzstan,” he said.

For Kyrgyzstan, though, CASA- 1000 is a headline project that it simply must make work. The $1.2b project, backed by the World Bank, has been touted as a regional trade deal that will create wealth in mountainous Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which have large power generating systems through their network of hydropower dams, and light houses and office blocks in Pakistan where electricity is in short supply.

The United States also views the project as an important way to lock Afghanistan into a global trade system and for it to generate some revenue as a transit country.

Still, as Indra Overland, research professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, said, even with the $1.7b loan secured, there is no guarantee that Kyrgyzstan’s power sector will be running at capacity by the time CASA-1000 is supposed to start in 2018.

“Kyrgyzstan has a problem of suboptimal internal organisation, lack of good governance,” he said. “It has plenty of hydropower potential to produce enough electricity for itself and for export. It should be a surplus country, but its infrastructure is lagging behind.”

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Tajik Pres. daughter becomes Parliamentary candidate

MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s Central Election Commission approved President Emomali Rakhmon’s daughter, Ozoda Rakhmon, as a parliamentary candidate. Ms Rakhmon is currently head of the Presidential Administration and will run for a seat in the upper house in a May 29 by-election. Democracy advocates have accused Tajikistan of nepotism in selecting public officials.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Tajik officials flatter Rakhmon

MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -DUSHANBE– Regional officials in Tajikistan are imposing strict regulations on the appearance of youngsters they allow to meet President Emomali Rakhmon when he visits, media reported, exposing what critics say are heavily stage-managed processes designed to flatter the Tajik leader.

According to reports, Shahnoz Niyozova, a student from the northern town of Mastchoh was barred from meeting Mr Rakhmon when he visited for Navruz celebrations in March because she was not sufficiently tall or Aryan in appearance.

A leaked official letter from the town’s administration gave a rare insight into local administrations’ think.

“Those who wish to speak before the Leader of Nation must have beautiful Aryan appearance, be tall, and have sonorous diction,” it said.

Local officials generally handpick the most beautiful and eloquent youths to meet Mr Rakhmon. They recite poems or thank him for bringing peace to Tajikistan.

Most ordinary Tajiks regard these meetings, which are shown on national television, as a waste of time.

In Dushanbe, Firdavs, 28, told a Bulletin correspondent that it was hot air.

“No one really talks about stuff that matter, like economic and political issues,” he said. “From all the flatteries and poems, you would think that we do not have any problems.”

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Tajik Air to fly to Beijing

APRIL 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s flagship carrier Tajik Air will start its Dushanbe-Beijing connection on May 2, a move that could boost trade ties with China. The direct flight will operate every Monday. Previously, Urumqi, in the Xinjiang region, was Tajik Air’s only Chinese destination.

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