The Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development will loan 16.25 million dollars to Tajikistan to build a road in its mountainous south-eastern region, Tajik national bank officials told AFP.
The loan would finance the construction of the 38-kilometer (24-mile) part of a highway linking Tajikistan with China and Pakistan, the bank officials said.
The Fund-financed road, which would be built some 300 kilometers (180 miles) to the southeast of Dushanbe, should be completed by 2003.
During a meeting with the Fund's deputy director Hesham Al-Waqayan, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmonov expressed hope that the former Soviet republic and the Fund would continue to work together.
The Fund for Arab Economic Development is a prominent investment and aid agency, which in cooperation with some 96 countries has provided financial aid amounting to some $10 billion over the 40 years of its history. — (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)