A Chinese company has finished building a major power plant in Tajikistan as Beijing moves to expand its economic clout in the cash-strapped central Asian country.
Tajik officials said Thursday that the power plant worth 350 million dollars in the capital, Dushanbe, was completed by Tebian Electric Apparatus (TBEA).
Officials said TBEA could use a gold mine north of Tajikistan to offset the cost of the investment in the power plant.
In 2009, TBEA spent USD 400 million on another power project in Tajikistan. The 325-kilometer electrical transmission line built by TBEA connects key areas across the country.
China has been the main foreign investor in Tajikistan. Chinese companies have been expanding their activities in the former Soviet state over the past years. Estimates show that China's Exim Bank holds around half of Tajikistan’s foreign debt.
Tajikistan has also seen huge Chinese investment in minerals and transport links. That has been in line with Beijing’s policy of "One Road, One Belt", which China hopes could boost its trade westward and across Eurasia.
The strategic investment in Tajikistan’s infrastructure, a country which suffered huge destruction during its bitter civil war from 1992 to 1995, could further expand China’s dominance in central Asia, an area which has often resisted West’s overtures and has been more lenient toward the East.