Dushanbe (NIAT Khovar) — Germany will provide grants of €31 million for bilateral cooperation projects, including €17&nbsp:mln for the construction of the Sebzor hydroelectric power plant.

Yesterday in Dushanbe, a meeting of intergovernmental consultations on bilateral cooperation between the Republic of Tajikistan and the Federal Republic of Germany was held. The delegation of Tajikistan was headed by the Head of the WTO Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Abdurahmon Abdurahmonzoda, while the German delegation was headed by the Representative for Cooperation with the Republic of Tajikistan and Central Asia at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Shakhdara River

Shakhdara Range lies in the extreme south-western Pamir in GBAO. It runs roughly in the east-west direction between Shakhdara River to the north and Panj on the border with Afghanistan to the south, rising toward Mayakovskiy Peak (6,096 m) in the west and Karl Marx Peak (6,726 m) in the east. Takes its name (in both English and Russian) from the Shakhdara River, and is sometimes erroneously called Shakhdarin Range (or Shakhdarin Mountains), a corruption of the Russian name.

One of the positive outcomes of the intergovernmental negotiations was the signing of financial and technical cooperation agreements, under which the German side will allocate €31 mln in grants to bilateral cooperation projects, including €17 mln for the construction of Sebzor hydropower plant The total cost of the Sebzor HPP is estimated at $36.8 mln.

Sebzor HPP with a capacity of 10&nbsp:MW is under construction on the Shakhdara River in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), where it is planned to produce up to 60 mln /year. Work began in the summer of 2015. The construction is being carried out by Pamir Energy, a company that manages GBAO’s electricity networks, with the support of the Government of Tajikistan.

In the consultations, too, particular attention was paid to the social sphere. The Parties confirmed that the programme of the main Directorate for Development Cooperation in the health sector should contribute to reducing maternal and infant mortality and combating the most serious diseases in the Republic of Tajikistan, such as tuberculosis.

It was decided to hold the next intergovernmental negotiations in 2020 in Berlin.

Following the consultations, a protocol was signed.