DUSHANBE, February 9, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Parliamentary hearings on energy and the provision of the population with the coal took place in Dushanbe on February 9.  

The Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Energy, Industry and Construction hosted the meeting and senior representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Industries also attended the event.

Muhammadato Sultonov, a spokesman for the Majlisi Namoyandagon, says the meeting participants, in particular, discussed the draft law on the extraction of the coal.

Parliamentarians noted that the country’s possible coal reserves were estimated at more than 4.5 billion tons, while local enterprises now produced only 140,000-150,000 tons of the coal per year.

MPs expressed hope that adoption of that law would promote increase in coal productions in the country, Sultonov said.