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RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0690/01 1301111
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101111Z MAY 07 SBU
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 0156
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0217
INFO RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 1984
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1952
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1883
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 1218
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2109
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 2080
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 0154
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2084
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1631
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1963
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 1898

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000690 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
COMMERCE/ITA FOR RISD 
COMMERCE/ITA FOR DYCK 
COMMERCE/ITA FOR SABIT 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN 
STATE FOR EB 
ASTANA PLEASE PASS TO SCO STU SCHAAG 
ALMATY PASS TO SABIT/ASHKENOVA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON EFIN TI AF KG UZ KZ
SUBJECT: PROVING WHY SABIT IS "SPECIAL" IN TAJIKISTAN 
 
REF: NONE 
 
DUSHANBE 00000690  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: We may be neighbors, but we aren't well 
connected.  This theme underscored a Central Asian 
Transportation Infrastructure Conference May 7, sponsored by the 
U.S. Department of Commerce along with Embassy Dushanbe, to 
highlight the Special American Business Internship Training 
program (SABIT) contribution to the transportation sector.  The 
conference provided an opportunity for Central Asian transport 
representatives to discuss their accomplishments and challenges 
within their respective transport sectors, along with the 
potential for future cooperation and growth.  Over 15 conference 
participants had previously received training through the SABIT 
program, demonstrating the results of this high-impact exchange 
program.  Representatives from Tajikistan, Afghanistan, 
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan focused on improving aviation and road 
construction efforts to integrate Central and South Asia.  The 
high level of participation -- more than 80 attendees -- 
demonstrated the desire for economic integration in the region 
and building/renovating roads between Kazakhstan and Karachi. 
Participants displayed some unwillingness to answer hard 
questions in the large-group forum.  However, the conference met 
its goals in side conversations as private companies talked 
contracts, airport managers traded experiences, and weary 
travelers swapped stories.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U)  Department of Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary for 
Europe Paul Dyck opened the conference by explaining the U.S. 
government desire to expand U.S. trade links with Central Asia, 
while reducing trade and investment barriers through initiatives 
such as the Central Asia Trade and Investment Framework 
Agreement (TIFA).  He also highlighted our mutual goal to create 
a regional electricity market, improve customs regimes and 
border security, and integrate telecom systems.  Tajik Deputy 
Minister of Transportation Djumahon Zuhurov thanked the U.S. 
government for these initiatives, which he agreed would cut 
poverty and raise the standard of living for all Central Asians. 
 
¶3.  (U)  The problems incoming visitors faced trying to get to 
the conference displayed perfectly the infrastructure challenges 
the region faces.  Two Department of Commerce representatives 
missed their connecting flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul, and 
had to take the next flight - three days later - to Dushanbe. 
Visa problems prevented an Afghan participant and a Uzbek 
citizen representative from U.S. Embassy Tashkent from coming at 
all.  U.S. representatives emphasized that these difficulties 
prevent businesspeople from coming here and stifle foreign 
investment. 
 
Constructing New Roads in Central Asia 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶4.  (U)  Kubanychbek Mamaev from the Kyrgyz Ministry of 
Transportation and Communication noted that companies face 
severe weather in renovating roads in Central Asia; many roads 
go though mountainous terrain whose high altitudes are more 
susceptible to storms and avalanches.  However, others described 
the large amounts of foreign investment in road projects here. 
Erkinbek Zhumaliyev from the Bishkek-Osh road project stated 
that the Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, 
Japanese Investment Agency and a private Iranian company had 
invested money to build new roads in Kyrgyzstan, which would 
integrate different agrarian areas and increase their access to 
other regional markets. 
 
¶5.  (U)  Galina Tarakanova from the Kazakh company 
"Kazdorproyekt" explained that the Saudi Development Fund, Asian 
Development Bank, and Louis Berger were funding ongoing road 
construction projects in Kazakhstan, which would link and 
 
DUSHANBE 00000690  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
increase trade between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and 
Pakistan.  One problem that these companies faced was Soviet-era 
standards and infrastructure, which these companies had started 
to replace and upgrade. 
 
Developing Air Travel and Renovating Airports 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------ 
 
¶6.  (U)  Mirzomuddin Anvarov, Director of the Dushanbe Airport, 
described ongoing French-funded efforts to renovate Dushanbe 
airport. He stated that the airport's current capacity of 200 
passengers per hour was not sufficient, which they wished to 
increase to 300 or 350 passengers per hour.  He also described 
(with help from the French Ambassador) French plans to build a 
new terminal at Dushanbe's airport, to construct a second 
runway, and to increase the airport's ability to transport cargo 
equipment.  The director recognized the high price of Tajik Air 
tickets for many Tajik citizens, but argued that they could not 
lower prices without losing money, due to the high prices of 
fuel and spare parts. 
 
¶7.  (U)  Uzifulla Azhmoldaev, the vice president of Astana 
International Airport, described the recent Japanese-funded 
renovations in Astana which drastically increased its number of 
international flight destinations.  Talaibek Okenov, from the 
Kyrgyzstan-based "Central Asian Aviation Associates," described 
the need for most Central Asian nations to upgrade their fleet 
by purchasing new aircraft.  He specifically named Turkmenistan 
and Uzbekistan as having strong aviation sectors, since they had 
acquired newer Boeing aircraft.  One of the challenges after 
acquiring these newer aircraft, however, was the need to train 
pilots to operate their advanced technologies.  He described a 
recent near-fatal accident at Manas International Airport which 
he blamed on old and outdated equipment.  The Director of the 
Kabul International Airport, Najeeb Maqsoodi, and his U.S. 
Federal Aviation Authority's Chuck Freisenhahn described a $6 
million World Bank project, and an additional $35 million from 
the Japanese government, to invest to further upgrade Kabul's 
airport.  In the ensuing discussion, participants expressed 
great interest in increased air links with Kabul. 
 
The Road to Investment 
 
---------------------------------- 
 
 
¶8.  (U)  Embassy Dushanbe's Business Information Service for the 
Newly Independent States (BISNIS) representative discussed the 
positives and negatives of the Tajik investment climate.  He 
cited fiscal, labor and monetary freedom as investment 
advantages in Tajikistan, while naming trade and business 
freedoms, lack of property rights, corruption and lengthy 
registration processes as existing impediments to more effective 
trade.  He explained the main role of his office is to 
facilitate the process for U.S. companies who wish to invest in 
Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, which has 
resulted in more than $4 billion of U.S. exports and overseas 
investments to date. 
 
¶9.  (U)  Neeraj Jain, Tajik Country Director for the Asian 
Development Bank (ADB), highlighted ADB's role in the 
development of the Central Asian transport sector.  Over the 
past ten years, ADB has provided $1.5 billion of assistance, 
which has been used to build roads, railways and airports.  ADB 
has also improved 3,250 kilometers of roads, or ten percent of 
the Central Asian transport corridor, through the Central Asian 
Regional Economic Cooperation Program, to better connect 
 
DUSHANBE 00000690  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with China, Uzbekistan and 
Afghanistan.  He admitted that some impediments to progress were 
weak road and border infrastructures, and a lack of modern 
technical equipment. 
 
¶10.  (U)  Assiya Alzhanova from the Almaty-based Small 
Enterprise Assistance Fund discussed her company's role in 
promoting entrepreneurship and innovation to small and 
medium-sized enterprises in growing economies, to help them 
maximize profitability.  Her company's main investors were the 
International Finance Corporation, USAID, and the Kazakh 
National Innovation Fund, which allowed her office to invest 
between $200,000 and $1.5 million per company.  Elena Anfimova 
of the International Road Transport Union highlighted the 
administrative barriers that faced anyone trying to move goods 
through the region.  EconOff gave the final presentation of the 
day, describing an upcoming regional USAID initiative to 
facilitate trade and ease customs procedures in Central Asia, 
which would raise the level of competitiveness for international 
trade in the region. 
 
¶11.  (U)  South and Central Asia Bureau's Director for Central 
Asia Pamela Spratlen in her closing remarks emphasized the U.S. 
commitment in regional transportation infrastructure -- 
stretching from the Nizhniy Pyanj bridge opening this summer, to 
various U.S.-funded conferences, to USAID development programs. 
 
¶12.  (U)  Comment: A visiting Department of Commerce 
representative asked participants to describe some of their 
existing problems, or whether the current level of cooperation 
between the Central Asian countries was sufficient to accomplish 
the common goal of integrating the region.  An awkward minute of 
silence passed after he asked this question, which displayed 
participants' reticence or unwillingness to discuss the tough 
questions publicly.  An exception occurred in an exchange when a 
representative from Khujand's Airport in northern Tajikistan 
asked an official from the Kyrgyz Ministry of Transportation 
what the two countries could do to lower trade barriers and to 
better facilitate the movement of goods between their borders. 
The Kyrgyz official recognized that these problems existed, but 
suggested that these would be problems "for the future." 
 
¶13.  (U)  Continued U.S. support for development and reform in 
the Central Asian transportation sector remains necessary to 
keep the dialogue going.  The SABIT Program and other exchange 
and training programs are invaluable in creating a cadre of 
leaders open to new ideas and willing to work together to 
realize them.  This conference demonstrated that these leaders 
share the goals of regional integration, and are actively 
working towards them.  End Comment. 
JACOBSON