China completes $350m power plant in Tajikistan

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AFP, Dushanbe :
A Chinese firm has completed a power plant worth $350 million in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, the ex-Soviet country said Thursday, indicating Beijing’s growing economic dominance in the cash-strapped state.
Tebian Electric Apparatus (TBEA) began building the coal-powered plant in 2013 and received the rights to a gold mine in the north of the Central Asian country to offset the cost of the investment.
TBEA also built a 325-kilometre, $400 million electrical transmission line across Tajikistan in 2009.
It is one of several Chinese companies active in Tajikistan, where China’s Exim Bank holds around half of all foreign debt.
Beijing has also invested heavily in minerals and transport links in its neighbour that endured a bitter civil war from 1992 to 1995.
The investments are in line with China’s “One Road, One Belt” initiative to ramp up Beijing’s westerly trade across Eurasia with strategic investments in infrastructure.
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