TASHKENT (TCA) — The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Directors on December 13 approved a $450 million loan to help install between 850 to 950 megawatts (MW) in additional generation capacity in the Talimarjan thermal power plant (TPP) using combined cycle technology, which will help improve power generation efficiency and energy security in Uzbekistan.

“Modernizing Uzbekistan’s energy sector and power generation facilities are central to the economy and development of the country,” said Seung Duck Kim, Energy Specialist at ADB’s Central and West Asia Department. “ADB’s assistance will help Uzbekistan meet its growing energy needs and enhance the sustainability of the energy sector.”

Uzbekistan’s energy sector currently contributes around 10% of the country’s gross domestic product and about 25% of its total exports. However, the country’s electricity supply-demand gap is widening and is expected to reach around 14,600 gigawatt-hours by 2020.

The project will help expand Talimarjan TPP’s capacity through the installation of additional combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units with combined heat and power facilities. The addition will increase the aggregate capacity of Talimarjan TPP to approximately 2,600 MW and improve its thermal efficiency from 48% to 52%.

The financing is a continuation of ADB’s previous support to Uzbekistan’s energy sector, following the 900 MW CCGT expansion at Talimarjan TPP commissioned in August 2017. The project will also boost efforts to realize the government’s ambitious program, called Vision 2030, to transition Uzbekistan to an industrialized and upper middle-income country by 2030. Energy sector modernization and reforms are the centerpieces of this vision.

The project will also enhance support to electricity sector reforms. ADB approval includes administration of a $2 million technical assistance grant provided by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction to enhance financial sustainability of Uzbekenergo, the state-owned electricity utility, and strengthen power sector planning and tariff studies.

TASHKENT (TCA) — Sodiq Safoev, the First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Uzbekistan and EBRD Governor for Uzbekistan, addressed the EBRD Board of Directors in London on December 13. It was the first high-level visit of an Uzbek official since the resumption of the Bank’s full operations in the country in November 2017, the EBRD press office said.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have now turned from just friendly countries into “strategic partners,” new Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov said after his talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent on December 13.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — On December 12, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, released the results of a five-year program which aimed to help Kyrgyzstan to improve the business environment and to promote private investments in order to create jobs and support sustainable economic development. The initiative is part of the IFC Central Asia Investment Climate Program, which is funded by the government of Switzerland and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic said.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — Moscow is taking steps to restore its military cooperation with Tashkent, in an apparent move to lure Uzbekistan back to the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, and possibly make the Uzbek leadership think about joining another Russia-led bloc — the Eurasian Economic Union. We are republishing this article by Joshua Kucera on the issue, originally published by EurasiaNet.org:

Uzbekistan has agreed to buy Russian attack helicopters, the latest sign that the new leadership in Tashkent is committed to reversing the country’s previous policy of shunning Moscow’s military advances.

The purchase of the 12 Mi-35 helicopters wasn’t formally announced, but reported by Russian news agency TASS, citing a “diplomatic source.” The source said the deal was reached after “prolonged negotiations” during the visit of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev to Tashkent in November.

The deal appears to be the first significant arms purchase made under the leadership of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who assumed power last year after the death of longtime president Islam Karimov. Mirziyoyev has been opening up the country in a variety of directions, including in the military sphere.

And he seems to be opening up to no one as much as Russia. In October the two countries held their first joint military exercises since 2005. Uzbekistan also took part, albeit in a limited fashion, in Russia-led exercises in Tajikistan earlier this year, which would not have happened under Karimov.

Karimov had distrusted Russia, and many of Uzbekistan’s most noteworthy arms acquisitions under him came from Europe, the United States, or China.

Given the apparent new pro-Russian mood in Tashkent, Moscow’s arms manufacturers have high hopes.

Viktor Murakhovskiy, editor of the Russian military magazine Arsenal Otechestva, said Uzbekistan has a large shopping list from Moscow, from small arms to Su-30SM fighter aircraft. “They have out-of-date armored vehicles, out-of-date air defense systems, out-of-date aviation, strike aircraft,” Murakhovskiy said in an interview with Pravda. In the interview, published before the Mi-35 deal became public, he also called attention to their out-of-date helicopters: “In terms of quantity they have quite a few helicopters, but we have to remember that a large part of them are not flightworthy.”

He also said that Tashkent was seeking loans from Moscow for the purchases, “taking into account the need to renovate or modernize all their weapons systems.”

The repairing of defense ties with Moscow actually began in the twilight of the Karimov administration. In 2014 Karimov managed to settle Uzbekistan’s old debts with Russia, which was portrayed as a way of opening up new lines of credit for new weapons sales. And Karimov in April 2016 also managed to negotiate Uzbekistan’s right to buy Russian weapons at the discounted rates that Russia generally reserves for its partners in the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

These gestures may in fact be aimed at getting Uzbekistan to rejoin the CSTO, as well as its sister economic organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, argued analyst Fozil Mashrab in a recent piece in Eurasia Daily Monitor. Uzbekistan dropped out of the CSTO in 2012 and Russia, understanding that any serious integration project in Central Asia has to include Uzbekistan, has barely hidden its desire to lure Tashkent back.

“Russia is undoubtedly facilitating trade, investment, and military relations with Uzbekistan in this way in order to demonstrate to the new leadership in Tashkent the practical benefits of close cooperation with Moscow,” Mashrab wrote. “As such, this situation could easily turn out to have been a temporary ‘free trial’ session, susceptible to unilateral changes by the Kremlin, rather than a permanent arrangement, if Uzbekistan continues to stay out of the Russian-led integrationist organizations.”

BISHKEK (TCA) — When asked what countries are friendly and can support their country in a difficult time, the majority of respondents that participated in population surveys in seven countries (five Eurasian Economic Union member countries, Tajikistan and Moldova) named the CIS region. The population of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan express the highest trust in their CIS neighbors for the sixth year in a row (95%, 94% and 90%, respectively).

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