DUSHANBE, January 8, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Government of Tajikistan and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) are currently working out a draft agreement on terms for the bank’s presence in the country, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
The first meeting of a joint working group to discuss the draft agreement will be held in late January.
As it had been reported earlier, the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank on December 11, 2008 considered applications by Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia and approved the entrance of them to the Bank.
In accordance with the admission procedure, the Board approved the increasing of the charter capital of the EDB by additional issuance of shares, which will be allocated to new members pro rata their contributions. At present, the EDB’s charter capital is fully paid in by its founders, Russia and Kazakhstan, and totals $1.5 billion. As a result of the additional issuance, it will be increased by $15.6 million due to fees of new members — Tajikistan, Belarus and Armenia. The Board also instructed the management of the Bank to execute agreements on the Bank’s presence in the territory of the new members.
We will recall that speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus last month, Chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) Sharif Rahimzoda noted that flexible position of the EDB on financial terms for admission of new members had given Tajikistan an opportunity to join the Bank through purchasing the minimum numbers of shares “that will not create any financial difficulties for the country.” According to him, Tajikistan’s admission to the Bank will give a new impulse to further development of integration processes within the area of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC).
“This step will create favorable conditions for implementation of important national projects in Tajikistan,” Rahimzoda said. “Thus, to increase the volumes of processing of cotton into manufactured goods inside the country we are currently considering the issue of attracting loan resources of the EDB in an amount of 22 million dollars for purchase of equipment for the spinning mill under construction in the country,” the NBT head said.
