DUSHANBE, May 7, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has provided an US$18.7 million loan to the Government of Tajikistan for co-financing phase III of the Shagon-Zighar road rehabilitation project.

According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), a loan agreement for 18.7 million U.S. dollars was singed by Safarali Najmiddinov, Minister of Finance of Tajikistan, and Hisham Taleb Maaruf, Director of the IsDB Regional Office, in Dushanbe on May 6.

The new project is continuation of phases I and II of the Shagon-Zighar road rehabilitation project and this soft loan carrying an interest rate of 2.5 percent a year is repayable over 25 years with a seven-year grace period, the source at a MoF said.

The Shagon-Zighar road rehabilitation project is aimed at supporting social and economic development of the southeast part of Tajikistan and breaking the isolation of the country by connecting it to the world through Gorno Badakhshan.