Uzbekistan, Tashkent, April 19 / Trend D.Azizov /
This year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to approve granting credits to Uzbekistan to the total amount of $837 million for projects in the fields of transport infrastructure, agriculture, education, public utilities, small private business, housing construction and modernisation of generating capacities, Vice President of ADB Xiao Zhao attemding the international conference 'Modern housing construction as an engine of development and transformation of the countryside and improvement of the life quality of population' said yesterday at a meeting with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, the National news agency of Uzbekistan (UzA) reported Friday.
During the meeting, President Karimov noted that Uzbekistan considers the ADB as a key strategic development partner.
ADB gives wide scale support to the comprehensive rural development programme allocating $500 million for its implementation. As part of the programme to date, in rural areas already built more than 23,000 modern comfortable houses, 700 social infrastructure buildings have already been constructed with over 70,000 job places having been created within the programme.
The high-tech project comprising the first solar photoelectric plant in the region with a 100-MW capacity in Samarkand province, the feasibility study of which is currently being implemented by the ADB, deserve special attention.
Uzbekistan has been a member of the ADB since 1995 and is today the largest recipient of this financial institution's credits in Central Asia.
By the beginning of April this year, ADB approved the allocation of 48 credit packages to Uzbekistan at a cost of $13.5 billion, including $4.5 billion for bank financing. In particular, in 2012 ADB approved granting credits to Uzbekistan to the sum of $876 million.