DUSHANBE, November 23, Asia-Plus - Ismoili Somoni – 21 ^st Century holding company plans to start construction of a new cement plant in Tajikistan within the next two years.  The plant is supposed to be constructed in Shahritus district, Khatlon.

Matin Mirzoyev, a lawyer with Ismoili Somonis – 21 ^st Century, said that currently, the company is negotiating the construction of the plant with potential partners.  According to him, the company has received quite many proposals from investors.  “Russia, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and a number of other countries have expressed their readiness to participate in this project,” Mirzoyev said, adding that the company now has to select a partner and review the project for the construction of the plant.  “Probably, we will work out a new project and submit it for consideration to an expert commission,” the company’s lawyer said.  

Earlier, Russia’s Instroy-2002 (overseas construction) had planned to construct the cement plant in Shahritus, and Tajik Ministry of Industry and Instroy-2002 signed a contract on this issue in 2002.  However, the Russian company did not take any efforts to start the construction.  Under Tajikistan’s legislation licensee should start activity within a year after getting the license and therefore the Ministry of Industry appealed to Higher Economic Court in the beginning of this year.  Higher Economic Court handed down a junction annulling the contract between the ministry and the Russian company, and the right to construct the plant was handed over to Ismoili Somonis – 21 ^st Century.  

Specialists underline significance of constructing a new cements plant in the country as construction of large facilities of statewide importance is increasing in the country from year to year, and the only cement plant in the republic, Tojikcement, is not able to provide all these facilities with cement.  

We will recall that the restructuring of Tojikcement presupposes establishment of three joint-stock companies.  According to Gulov, the head of the Committee for Management of State-owned Property, the Czech Republic intends to invest 25 million euros (some US $30 million) in this project.  According to him, the Dushanbe cement plant needs major repairs.  Modernization will enable the plant to increase its daily production of cement from 1,500 tons to 1,800 tons, according to him. 

According to the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MoET), this year, Tajikistan’s requirements in cement have been 1.2 million tons, and taking into consideration the construction of Sangtuda power plants, tunnels Shar-Shar, Anzob and Shahriston, as well as industrial and private facilities, the country’s requirements in cement will have increased to 1.6 million tons by 2010.