VZCZCXRO5611
PP RUEHLN RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1316/01 3270942
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 230942Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0925
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0309
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 2020

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 001316 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON MASS ETRD TI
SUBJECT: DEFENSE TEAM IN TAJIKISTAN TO LOOK AT PROCUREMENT 
POSSIBILITIES FOR U.S. TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN 
 
DUSHANBE 00001316  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  A team of U.S. military purchasing 
specialists visited Tajikistan last week to investigate 
possibilities for procuring non-lethal goods on the Tajik market 
for delivery to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  The team 
tentatively agreed to purchase bottled water from Tajik 
manufacturer Obi Zulol, pending quality assessments.  They also 
explored the potential for purchasing other food and beverage 
products, including dairy, juice, nuts, and other snack foods, 
as well as non-food items such as textiles and paper products. 
The team met with Tajik government officials to express 
CENTCOM's interest in local procurement, explain the U.S. 
military's quality control standards, and ensure the cooperation 
of key government agencies such as Customs, Border Guards, and 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  All assured the U.S. team that 
they would do everything necessary to make sure that supplies 
flow efficiently to Afghanistan.  This being Tajikistan, 
however, such talk is cheap; the real proof will come when and 
if deliveries begin.  End summary. 
 
TEAM LOOKS AT TAJIK WATER AND OTHER GOODS 
 
¶2. (SBU) Following up on a commitment by General David Petraeus 
during his October visit to Dushanbe to promote local 
procurement of non-lethal goods for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, 
a team of nine military purchasing specialists led by Commander 
Stephen J. Kaufman of CENTCOM's Logistics Directorate visited 
Tajikistan last week.  The team included civilian 
representatives from government and private sector military 
contractors, as well as food safety and public health 
specialists from the U.S. Army's Veterinary Command (VETCOM). 
Lawrence Coleman, with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and 
Mitch Juby, a senior buyer with DLA contractor Supreme Global 
Service Solutions, were on hand to look at food and beverage 
products.  Douglas French, Director of the Distribution 
Operations Division of the General Services Administration's 
Federal Acquisition Service, came to look at local procurement 
possibilities for paper products.  Steve Zolock, Director of 
Program Management for Technology Management Company, was 
looking at textiles and building materials.  The four VETCOM 
specialists were Jeffrey LaHuis, Jeffrey Lyons, Eric Newsome, 
and Don Shuttleworth. 
 
¶3. (SBU) On November 18, Supreme buyer Mitch Juby and three of 
the VETCOM specialists visited the headquarters of Tajikistan's 
largest beverage company, Obi Zulol, to conduct a site visit and 
collect samples for testing.  Obi Zulol produces mineral water, 
soda, and, more recently, fruit juices.  Should the samples pass 
the military's quality control specifications, Supreme will 
enter into contract negotiations with the company to supply 
bottled water to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  Obi Zulol 
previously had a contract to provide water to troops in 2006, 
but the contract was not renewed due to difficulties with 
transit to and over Afghan territory.  With the creation of the 
Northern Distribution Network, efforts are being made to ensure 
that such difficulties do not re-emerge. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In addition to inspecting Obi Zulol, the CENTCOM-led 
team was in Tajikistan to explore other procurement 
possibilities in Tajikistan.  On November 16, team members 
visited a dairy production facility, a textile factory, a paper 
products packager, and a nut distributor.  According to the 
participants, all of the facilities showed potential promise as 
suppliers to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  The team explained to 
Tajik representatives, however, that the military has specific 
contracting needs and procedures as well as exacting quality 
control specifications, so it would be some time before 
decisions were made on contracting. 
 
ENSURING GOVERNMENT BUY-IN 
 
¶5. (SBU) On November 17, Kaufman, Coleman, Zolock, and French, 
accompanied by Embassy Econoff and Commercial Specialist, met 
with officials from Tajikistan's Customs Committee, Border 
Guards, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic 
Development and Trade, and Chamber of Commerce, to explain their 
mission, discuss contracting procedures, and ensure buy-in from 
key officials. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Customs Committee First Deputy Chairman Negmat Rahmatov 
assured team members that procedures for exporting goods from 
Tajikistan were relatively liberal.  He said that by law Customs 
officials had 48 hours from the delivery of invoices to clear 
outgoing freight.  As a matter of course, however, clearance 
often took as little as "15 or 20 minutes."  Processing fees 
ranged from $10 for goods valued between $0 and $5,000 to $900 
for goods valued at over $1 million.  Rahmatov explained that 
according to intergovernmental agreements, loaded Tajik trucks 
were permitted to travel to their destinations in Afghanistan, 
 
DUSHANBE 00001316  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
and vice-versa.  He was not sure that Tajik freight forwarders 
would drive all the way to Kabul, but a representative from Obi 
Zulol said shippers are willing to do this.  The other option is 
to use Afghan transport, but empty Afghan trucks were not 
permitted to travel further north than Qurghonteppa, 100 km from 
the Afghan border.  (Empty Tajik trucks could not proceed 
further south than Kunduz in Afghanistan.)  Rahmatov said the 
Afghans officially charged $200 for laden trucks to proceed 
through Afghanistan but indicated that other unofficial payments 
were sometimes demanded.  The U.S.-built bridge at Nizhniy Pyanj 
can accommodate 1,000 trucks a day, but current traffic averages 
only 200 a day.  Customs hours are from 0800 to 1800, seven days 
a week, although Rahmatov said the Afghan side closes on Friday 
and "sometimes at other times for reasons we don't understand." 
General Mirzoev of the Tajik Border Guards told the team that 
his troops only interfered with freight transit if they had 
actionable intelligence that a shipment contained contraband. 
Otherwise it is the responsibility of Customs to deal with 
freight shipments. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Farhod Salim, the Head of the Department of American 
and European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assured 
the contracting team that they had the support not only of his 
minister but of President Rahmon.  He said the relationship with 
Afghanistan was one of the most important for Tajikistan, noting 
that the Minister had recently canceled a trip to the Czech 
Republic in order to attend the inauguration of President Hamid 
Karzai.  Salim told Commander Kaufman he should not hesitate to 
turn to the MFA should he need any help.  First Deputy Minister 
Amonullo Ashur of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade 
was similarly positive.  A figure out of Soviet Central Casting, 
the Deputy Minister at one point turned to an Obi Zulol 
representative who was sitting in on the meeting and said, "are 
you making this happen?" 
 
COMMENT: TAJIK GOVERNMENT HAS MET ENEMY, AND IT MIGHT BE IT 
 
¶8.  (SBU) There are a number of hurdles to sourcing goods in 
Tajikistan:  The country has almost no industry and an 
underdeveloped agricultural sector; it faces severe, 
factory-crippling power shortages during winter; it is 2,000 
miles away from the nearest port; it has a Soviet-era quality 
control system (where any system at all exists); and it has 
difficulty feeding its own population, 53% of which live below 
the poverty level.  Nevertheless, Commander Kaufman and his team 
found several potential suppliers that might meet military needs 
and standards.  The hope on both the Tajik and the U.S. side is 
that demand for these goods will not only provide much needed 
revenue in Tajikistan, but will help spur development and 
goodwill here.  Team members were clear to company 
representatives and government officials alike that certifying 
and contracting for Tajik goods was a long and difficult road. 
Another potential difficulty that was not mentioned, however, 
might be Tajik bureaucracy.  It is important that government 
officials follow up their encouraging words with encouraging 
actions -- rather than looking for a way to slow down, or 
personally profit from, our efforts.  End comment. 
QUAST