DUSHANBE, December 25, 2014, Asia-Plus – Pakistani media sources report that during a meeting with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Commerce Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan emphasized last month that the vision of Pakistani prime minister was to link the regions through infrastructure, mobile phone and financial system connectivity which would be instrumental in the economic uplift of the people of the South and Central Asia.
The CASA-1000 project will be a classic example of economic interdependence between the two regions and provide Pakistan with the much-eagerly required electricity, Pakistani official noted.
Khurram Dastgir Khan also talked about the desire to create an energy market in the region, which could easily be supplied to any country with an energy deficiency, once the grid is established.
We will recall that Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a hydroelectric agreement in Istanbul, Turkey on December 4.
The project, known as the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000), is expected to be completed by 2018 under the umbrella of the World Bank. Tajikistan’s share in the energy export will be 70%, while Kyrgyzstan will export 30%.
Afghanistan will consume 300MW of the exported energy while Pakistan will receive 1,000MW electricity. It is hoped that the project will boost energy trade in the region that will lead to sustainable development.
Pakistani media sources report that under the agreement, Pakistan will import 1,000 megawatts electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan at a price of 9.35 cents including all charges.
