, March 5, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Open joint-tock company (OJSC) Agroinvestbonk applied to the government yesterday, asking for extending the term of repayment of the state cotton loan till the end of the year.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Jalil Tavakkalov, director of the Agroinvestbonk analytical department, said they had applied to government with such a request because many cotton-growing farms in the Khatlon and Sughd provinces had failed to pay off their loan debts by the time fixed -- April 1, 2009.  “The farming units had problems wit realization of cotton,” said Tavakkalov, “Moreover, last year was a dry year; this and the problem of pests seriously affected last year’s cotton harvests.”

Therefore, the bank needs a certain time to take necessary measures to return the state loans.  “To get loans, farming units pledged their property and land certificates in addition to last year’s cotton harvests,” said the Agroinvestbonk official.  “The bank needs a certain time to realize the remaining cotton and register the pledged property.  Therefore, we asked the government to extend the state loan repayment term till the end of the year,”

Of 50 million somoni of state funds provided to cotton farmers last year, Agroinvestbonk has repaid more than 14 million somoni to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) so far.  “These funds were provided to our bank at 12 percent annual interest and we provided these funds to cotton farmers in loans at 18 percent annual interest in order to cover the loan service expenses,” Tavakkalov said.

According to him, farming units now owe 96 million somoni to the bank.  This amount includes 60 million somoni of Agroinvestbonk’s own funds.

Tavakkalov noted that the bank would continue providing loans to the farming units that had paid off their debts.  “We have received cotton loan applications from such farms for a total amount of 10 million somoni so far and these applications are currently under consideration,” he said.

Founded in 1992, Agroinvestbonk, with headquarters in Dushanbe, has main branches in Khorog, Khujand, Kulob and Qurghon Teppa and 61other branches across the republic.