Current total package of applications for Uzbek loans has reached 15.3 million U.S. dollars. Tajik and Uzbek banks are currently specifying conditions under which Tajik entrepreneurs will get loans to finance import of Uzbek goods.
The sides are expected to sign the final document in the near future and after that the Uzbek side will begin providing export loans to Tajik enterprises working in both countries.
Recall, Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) and Uzbekistan’s National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity as well as Tajikistan’s Eskhata Bank and Uzbekistan’s Asaka signed cooperation agreements in March this year.
Under these agreements, Uzbekistan will extend US$100 million worth of credit to develop enterprises working in both countries. The loan will be provided to Tajikistan for import of Uzbek goods.
The document provides for launching special credit lines at Amonatbonk and Eskhata Bank for implementation of the trade financing projects for the purpose of increasing the export of Uzbekistan’s goods and services (textiles, building materials, food products, household chemical goods, farm produce, electrical equipment, vehicles, etc.) to Tajikistan.
Low-interest loans will be provided to entrepreneurs who have specific business-plans on expansion of cooperation with Uzbek state-run and private companies.
To-date, a total package of applications for Uzbek loans has reportedly reached 15.3 million U.S. dollars.
It is to be noted that Uzbekistan signed a similar agreement with Kyrgyzstan during Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov’s visit to Tashkent in December last year.
A separate agreement was concluded in early February this year between Uzbekistan’s Uzpromstroybank and Asaka and Kyrgyzstan’s RSK Bank and Aiyl Bank on conditions for provision of this money.
The first contract worth US$600,000 on delivery of Uzbek agricultural machines to Kyrgyzstan was signed in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, in mid-February.
