BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 22
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
On Oct. 22, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy hosted a meeting with a delegation of the Chinese Silk Road Fund headed by President of the Fund Yanzhi Wang, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the ministry.
At the meeting, current issues of cooperation and prospects for its development were discussed, the report said.
In order to jointly implement projects in the oil and gas sector, Uzbekneftegaz JSC and the Chinese side, primarily through the Silk Road Fund, signed a loan agreement in the amount of $585 million in July. In mid-October, the first financial tranche was implemented as part of partnership activities. During this meeting, issues of further implementation of the agreements reached were discussed.
Furthermore, the parties considered the issue of expanding cooperation in all areas of the energy industry and joint preparation of proposals for financing of investment projects.
Silk Road Fund is a Chinese investment fund that supports infrastructure projects, facilitates trade cooperation and secures funding under the One Belt, One Way initiative.
The President of China, Xi Jinping, announced his intention to create the Fund on November 8, 2014 at the Dialogue on Strengthening Connectivity Partnership forum on the eve of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The total capital of the fund is approximately $40 billion.
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