DUSHANBE, October 29, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The Kharkov (Ukraine) tractor plant is ready to consider the issue of launching agricultural machine maintenance service centers in Tajikistan.

Visiting Kharkov governor Arsen Avakov yesterday held talks here with Minister of Agriculture Qosim Qosimov.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Avakov said that during the Tajik-Ukrainian business forum that was held in Dushanbe yesterday evening Qosimov noted that Tajikistan was experiencing an acute shortage of agricultural machines.  “According to him, Tajikistan now needs some 13,000 tractors and other agricultural machines,” the governor said, “The Tajik side wants the Kharkov tractor plant to set to assembling and maintaining agricultural machines in Tajikistan.”

Avakov noted that the Kharkov region and Tajikistan had long cooperation in agrarian sector and his region was ready to provide assistance to Tajikistan with solving that issue.

Tajikistan also expressed intention to develop agricultural engineering industry and seed production and the Kharkov tractor plant could assist it with that as well, Ukrainian official noted.

In the meantime, Igor Sazonov, a senior representative of the Kharkov tractor plant, who also attended the forum, told Asia-Plus that the plant has supplied more than 1,000 tractors of different types to Tajikistan in recent years.  He noted that the Kharkov tractor plant intended to launch an enterprise in Tajikistan to manufacture output that could also be exported to other Central Asian countries and Afghanistan.