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EBRD loan to modernise Tajikistan's telecom network
€14-million deal a big boost to Bank's Tajik portfolio
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a $13-million (€14- million) loan to finance the modernisation of Tajikistan's fixed-line telecommunications network.
The loan to OJSC Tajiktelecom, approved by the EBRD's Board of Directors on 4 September, is the Bank's first in the telecommunication sector in the Central Asian republic, as well as its largest to date. It will increase the EBRD's total commitments to Tajikistan to about €30 million.
"Accessible, high-quality telecommunications are essential to develop business - yet fewer than four in every 100 Tajiks has a telephone, and the system is obsolete and difficult to maintain," said Peter Reiniger, Business Group Director for the Industry and Commerce Group of the EBRD.
"Communications are indeed a vital element in infrastructure, and this deal will help improve the investment climate," Tajikistan's Minister of Communications Nuritdin Mukhitdinov said. "We are ready to co-operate further with the EBRD on large-scale projects in the telecommunications sector as well as to consider additional proposals from other foreign investors."
Part of the loan will fund the purchase of equipment that will enable Tajiktelekom to introduce time-based charge calls in the area around the capital, Dushanbe.
The government of Tajikistan is committed to implement regulatory reforms in the telecoms sector in parallel with the EBRD-backed investment plan. This is expected to include adoption of an up-to-date law on the telecoms sector and the establishment of the legal and regulatory framework needed to attract further investment and promote competition.
Apart from the Bank financing, Switzerland is providing a grant of $2.2 million for further investments in the network, and Japan has promised an extra $750,000 in addition to the $500,000 it has already provided as technical assistance.
"Switzerland has a special commitment to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia with whom it is grouped in some international financial institutions," said ambassador Oscar Knapp, Delegate for Trade Agreements of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
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