DUSHANBE, October 21, 2009, Asia-Plus — We admire Tajikistan’s efforts to try to construct the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) on its own despite the global financial crisis, Russian Minister of Energy also Co-chairman of Tajik-Russian intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation, Sergey Shmatko, told reporters in Dushanbe yesterday following his meeting with President Emomali Rahmon.
He stressed that Russia has never refused to participate in construction of the Roghun HPP, but “there are no yet specific formulations of participation of Russia in construction of this facility.”
Shmatko noted that Russian and Tajik sides were satisfied with the results of a session of the Tajik-Russian intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation that was held here on October 20.
“President Emomali Rahmon and I also discussed the issue of exploration and development of gas fields in Tajikistan,” said Russian official, “Our side intends to intensify work in this direction in order that Tajikistan could have its own oil and natural gas.”
