DUSHANBE, October 10, Asia-Plus -- Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov met with top managers of Kazakhstan’s Investment Fund and ATF Bank in Dushanbe on October 9. 

A source in the presidential press service said the Kazakhstan Investment Fund head, Zeinulla Kakimzhanov, and the ATF Bank board of directors chairman Talgak Kuanyshev attended the meeting. 

During the meeting Oqilov hailed the intention of ATF Bank to purchase a 65 percent stake in Tajikistan''s open joint-stock company SohibkorBonk, according to the source. 

The Kazakhs intend to invest in the development of Tajikistan’s mining, agrarian and energy sectors. 

Kazakh entrepreneurs also expressed readiness to privatize the Khujand cannery and participate in financing of the projects aimed at the improvement of reclamation of lands in the Danghara district and the construction of a cement plant in southern Tajikistan. 

The Tajik prime minister also sought the cooperation of Kazakh companies in processing raw materials and producing a finished product.

The parties also discussed the construction of three small hydroelectric power stations on the Zarafshan River in northern Tajikistan and a 500-kilovolt electric line from Khujand, the capital of northern province of Sughd, to the Kazakh region of Shimkent.  ”Kazakhstan prefers to build this transmission line through Uzbekistan, while Tajikistan proposes to route it through Kyrgyzstan,” the source said. 

The Kazakh delegation included representatives from KazInvestMineral, ATF Bank and Kazakhstan Investment Fund, led by the Fund’s head, Zeinulla Kakimzhanov, arrived in Tajikistan on October 8 for a four-day working visit.  They had already carried out negotiations with senior representatives from Tajikistan’s central bank and ministry of energy. 

Kazakh entrepreneurs are also scheduled to visit the Sughd province to negotiate modernization of the Adrasman Ore Refinery. KazInvestMineral, which is the main partner of the Kazakhstan Investment Fund, purchased the plant in July of this year for 12 million somonis (equivalent to more than US$3.5 million).  KazInvestMineral intends to spend at least 15 million US dollars for the reconstruction of the plant and update its technology and equipment.  The KazInvestMineral representatives will present a plan to reconstruct the Adrasman Ore Refinery.