DUSHANBE, July 5, Asia-Plus — Joint-stock company (JSC) Kazakhtelecom, Kazakhstan’s national telecommunications operator, intends to close its representative office in Tajikistan.

Makhsut Karzhubayev, the head of Kazakhtelecom’s representative office in Dushanbe, told Asia-Plus that since March, when the office was opened in Tajikistan, it has not made any serious step forward in its plans.  Karzhubayev reminded that Kazakhtelecom was going to cooperate with the Tajik side, represented by Tajik Telecom (Tajikistan’s national telecommunications operator), in installing optic-fiber network that would link Tajikistan to Kazakhstan through Kyrgyzstan.  By this network, Kazakhtelecom has intended to get in telecommunications markets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India through Tajikistan.  Kazakhstan’s national telecommunications operator planned to invest $100 million in this project.  

“Administration of Kazakhtelecom is unhappy for inaction of the Tajik side and currently considering the issue of closing its representative office in Tajikistan,” said Karzhubayev, “Our repeated appeals to Tajik state officials about launching the project for installation of the optic-fiber network have been ignored.”  According to him, the project for installation of the optic-fiber network will be implemented, but via Turkmenistan.  

Represetnatives from Tajik Telecom have refrained from commenting on this subject. 

We will recall that an official opening of the representative office Kazakhtelecom was held in Dushanbe on March 27.  That time, telling the cremony Karzhubayev said, “We are expanding our operation into Central Asia and ready to invest in development of fixed-line telecommunications in Tajikistan and participate in the implementation of joint projects.”  He noted that they also plan to organize satellite broadcasts of Kazakh television to Tajikistan.  

Kazakhtelecom, a joint stock company, is a leading telecommunication operator of Kazakhstan.  It has the developed system of centers on provision of wide range of telecommunication services. These services include traditional telephony and telegraph, data communication and Internet access, intelligent and satellite networks and many others.  There are more than 33 thousand people working for the company.  Kazakhtelecom has its affiliated branches in all regions oblast of the country.  Number of its clients exceeds 2.5 million individuals and legal entities.  As an international operator, Kazakhtelecom maintains close cooperation with 154 overseas operators and 23 operators in the CIS and Baltic states, ensuring communication with more than 230 countries across the world.