Chinese Government provides RMB 50 million grant — via ETCA — for Karakul Pumping Station Reconstruction Project

Project narrative

In 2009, Chinese Government provided a RMB 50 million interest-free loan for Karakul Pumping Station Reconstruction Project. On June 27, 2009, the Chinese Government committed RMB 60 million to the Government of Uzbekistan through an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA). Using RMB 50 million of the proceeds from this ETCA, the Government of Uzbekistan obtained an interest-free loan for the Karakul Pumping Station Reconstruction Project. To support this loan agreement, an inter-bank agreement was signed between China Development Bank and the National Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan on May 28, 2010. The Karakul Pumping Station Reconstruction Project sought to reconstruct a Karakul district pumping station in Bukhara region (oblast). It did so by, among other things, facilitating the acquisition of pump equipment. China IPPR International Engineering Corporation was the contractor. This pump station is responsible for the irrigation of nearly 30,000 hectares of land in the Karakul region and the water supply for 769 livestock farms. During the slack season, the pump station is used to wash saline-alkali soil. The primary and auxiliary Karakul pump stations have been operating for over 40 years and 25 years, respectively, and long exceeded the normal service life of mechanical and electrical equipment. The poorly serviced equipment were no longer able to satisfy the local irrigation needs. The successful completion and operation of the Karakul Pump Station Reconstruction Project on schedule further expanded the irrigation coverage of the pump station, not only restoring and improving the agricultural irrigation and drainage conditions, but also effectively improving the salinealkali soil environment. The Karakul region, one of the most important cotton production areas of Uzbekistan, had an excellent harvest of cotton in that very year. In 2012, both the region’s irrigated cotton plantation area and output ranked second across the country and the cotton festival, which had been abandoned for over a decade, was revived, attracting over 200,000 visitors. According to legislation from the Republic of Uzbekistan, the implementation of the project started in 2011. This project was initiated in 2006 and completed on January 13, 2013.