BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 29
By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:
Uzbekistan could be the starting point for SUEZ Group's business development in this specific region which is attracting development cooperation funding agreements, a representative of the SUEZ company told Trend in an interview.
Administration of Tashkent city of Uzbekistan has announced the start of cooperation with French SUEZ International, on June 15, 2020, on the basis of signed contract. The total budget of this project is 185.4 million euros. According to the contract, a promising and innovative seven-year Tashkent Water Supply Transformation Plan project will be implemented.
"The contract was signed at the beginning of March. Due to the international health crisis, the communication has been displayed more recently," the rep noted.
The "Tashkent Water Transformation Plan" (TWTP) project led by SUEZ is part of a broader project called "Tashkent Strategy 2030", which reflects the Uzbek authorities’ willingness to modernize the city of Tashkent, and make it a flagship for the country and more broadly, for the Central Asian region.
"Suez and its Uzbek counterparts (Municipality of Tashkent and National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan) are structuring an innovative and attractive financing, based on the buyer credit scheme with the support of the French Public Investment Bank and the French Ministry of Finance, as well as several leading European banks", stated representative of the French company.
As he noted, the main operational partner in charge of its implementation is the Tashkent Shahar SuvTaminoti (TSST) water company, which will subcontract certain tasks to local companies.
"SUEZ will implement a large portfolio of solutions covering analysis and diagnosis of water and wastewater networks as well as the implementation of operational, digital and technical solutions to optimize network performance (leak detection and reduction, smart metering and customer relation systems). It should also be pointed out that the contract provides a training part and know-how transfer with the mobilization of 50 expatriate or local experts to reinforce the organization of TSST", stated representative of French SUEZ company.
According to representative of SUEZ, the objective of this project is to meet the needs of a growing population and a certain economic and industrial development, while preserving water resources.
"Better management of networks makes it possible to limit the consumption of a water resource that has become precious and to limit the quantity of wastewater discharged directly into the natural environment (reduction of leaks in distribution and sewerage networks, etc.) while meeting the needs of users. This helps to preserve the water across the country," rep said.
As representative said, French company’s ambition is to work in major cities across Uzbekistan, across the entire value chain in water services from consulting to operation. For this purpose, SUEZ opened its offices in Tashkent and Samarkand and intends to create a regional center in the republic for its expansion in Central Asia.
Besides, according to rep, SUEZ was in competition for the management of water in the city of Tashkent. Veolia Environnement also expressed interest in water projects of Tashkent.
"It is true that Veolia Environnement and SUEZ were in competition for the management of water in the city of Tashkent. said representative of SUEZ.
SUEZ (formerly Suez Environnement) is a French-based utility company which operates largely in the water and waste management sectors. Suez is number one private water provider worldwide.
With an active presence on five continents, SUEZ and its 90,000 employees strive to preserve environment’s natural capital: water, soil, and air. Since the end of the 19th century, SUEZ has built expertise aimed at helping people to constantly improve their quality of life by protecting their health and supporting economic growth.
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