Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 21
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
The State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a sum of $500 million for financing the project of modernization of the energy network of Turkmenistan, Trend reports via Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary (TDH).
Actively connecting Turkmenistan to a single Central Asian energy system plays an important role in opening up additional possibilities for the increase of the scope of supply of Turkmen electricity within the framework of the international "Turkmenistan – Uzbekistan – Tajikistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan" (TUTAP) project, TDH said.
It was previously reported that a financing of the construction of high-voltage power lines in the Akhal-Balkan and Balkan-Dashoguz areas was in the works. It was reported at the end of October that the ADB expressed readiness to invest funds in Turkmenistan‘s transport and communications, energy, oil and gas industries, along with the country’s private sector. The working plan proposed by the bank, considered investments in the Turkmen economy for the period of 2019-2021, amounting to about $1 billion.
Turkmenistan has been cooperating with ADB since 2000.
The country exports electricity to Iran and Afghanistan. By 2020, the Caspian country plans to produce up to 27.4 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity, and to increase its volume by 2030 to 35.5 billion kilowatts per hour.
The Ministry of Energy of Turkmenistan stated that there are great possibilities for the supply of Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan, Pakistan and India in transit through Afghanistan.