DUSHANBE, January 25, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan’s foreign trade rose 35.8 percent in the year to January 1, 2010, reaching 1.6913 billion U.S. dollars, Minister of Finance Safarali Najmiddinov told reporters in Dushanbe on January 25.

According to him, 122 million U.S. dollars were allocated form the country’s budget last year for repayment of a part of the foreign debt and another 140 million somoni and 22 million somoni will be allocated this year for principal and interest payments respectively.

Long-term preferential loans from the international financial organizations form the bulk of the country’s foreign debt.  Out of the 813 million U.S. dollars offered by the international financial organizations, US$372 million has been borrowed from the World Bank, US$301 million has been borrowed from the Asian Development Bank and US$40 million has been borrowed from the Islamic Development Bank, the minister said.  Besides, US$40 million has been borrowed from the European Commission and US$19 million has been borrowed from OPEC Fund, Najmiddinov added.

China remains Tajikistan’s largest creditor as US$630 million has been borrowed from China’s Exim (export/import) Bank for enhancement of the energy and transportation sectors.

The finance minister said that Tajikistan now also owed US$3 million to Turkey, US$43 million to Uzbekistan, US$7 million to Kazakhstan and US$20 million to Iran.

“All these funds have been provided in a form of long-term preferential loans carrying an annual interest rate of 2 percent,” Najmiddinov said, noting that Tajikistan does not have any problems with loan servicing.