DUSHANBE, March 28, Asia-Plus - The possibility of participation of Kazakhstan’s state holding Samruk in enhancement of the telecommunications sector in Tajikistan was one of the major topics of a March 27 meeting of President Emomali Rahmon with the Samruk top manager Sauat Minbayev, presidential press service said.  

In the course of the talks the two considered issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan in the fields of telecommunications and energy.  During the meeting it was noted that due to investments of Kazakhstan and energy potentials of Tajikistan the two countries could actively cooperate in creating regional infrastructure for exporting electrical power.

They also discussed the possibility of supply of Tajik electricity to southern regions of Kazakhstan in the summer period.  

Samruk, a state-holding company headquartered in Astana, was created by president’s decree on 28 January 2006.  The following month McKinsey & Company was hired to provide leadership and guidance for Samruk’s operations.  The single shareholder of JSC Kazakhstan Holding Samruk is the Ministry of Economics and Budgeting.  A board of directors was created for Samruk consisting of a chairman (an independent non-executive director from the UK), another independent non-executive director from Kazakhstan, the Deputy Minister of Economics and Budgeting, the Deputy Minister of Finance, and the CEO of Samruk holding.

In the meantime, an official opening of representative office of KazakhTelecom, Kazakhstan’s national telecommunications operator, was held in Dushanbe yesterday.  

Telling an inaugurating ceremony, the representative office director Makhsut Karzhubayev noted that KazakhTelecom is ready to invest in the creation of optic-fiber network that will link Tajikistan to Kazakhstan through Kyrgyzstan.  

Besides, KazakhTelecom intends to get in telecommunications markets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India through Tajikistan, according to him.     

“When the project is completed, Tajikistan will become a large transit center between Europe and Asia,” Karzhubayev said, noting that a total project cost is $100 million.