, July 20, Asia-Plus - Sherali Gulov, Chairman of the State Committee for Management of State-owned Property, told journalists in Dushanbe on July 20 that participation of Russian Aluminum (RusAl) in the completion of the construction of the Roghun power plant in Tajikistan still remains under question.  

According to him, issues related to the implementation of the Roghun project in Tajikistan figured prominently in President Rahmonov’s telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 18.   “The details of this issue are not published yet,” Mr. Gulov said.  

The head of the Committee for Management of State-owned Property also added that RusAl would construct the Roghun plant’s infrastructure.  “In the event of establishment of closed joint-stock company “Roghun HPS, ownership shares will depend on contributions,” said Mr. Gulov, “Or at wish of the company, the funds it invested in the project will be returned to it.”

He also noted that the governments of Tajikistan and the Russian Federation signed an agreement on energy cooperation and a joint completion of the construction of the Roghun plant in Tajikistan in 1994 already.  The closed joint-stock company “Roghun HPS” was supposed to be launched under that project, Tajikistan and Russia were expected to own 50 percent of shares in the company each.   “However, for various reasons those plan were not implemented,” said Gulov, “All issues on the construction of the plant will be solved on August 1, when experts from German’s Lehmeyer International conducting a feasibility study for completing the construction of Roghun plant will return from Germany .” 

            In the meantime, Aleksnadr Kasatkin, a spokesman for the RusAl representative office in Dushanbe has told Asia-Plus that the Russian side was interested in participating in the Roghun and Russian Aluminum would participate in the project on behalf of the Russian Federation .