(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Kamila Aliyeva
Kazakhstan needs 1.3 trillion tenge for projects to provide rural communities with drinking water.
This was announced today by the director of the permanent representative office of the Asian Development Bank in Kazakhstan Giovanni Capannelli at the parliamentary hearings, Kazinform reported.
'Recently, we discussed the possibility of launching a new project to provide drinking water to rural communities with the government. It is expected that due to this project the current volume of water supply in rural areas will increase more than fourfold. We were informed that the total need for investments is about 1.3 trillion tenge. ADB is ready to consider supporting this project, taking into account Kazakhstan's need to find a source of funding outside the budget, he said.
ADB can provide preferential financing within the framework of sovereign borrowing on very attractive terms, according to Capannelli.
'Taking into account the scale of investments and the impact of tariff increases, we suggest that the country's leadership consider a financing option with rather low costs and long-term benefits, he added.
The bank's representative recalled that ADB is actively involved in the work on improving integrated water resources management in Kazakhstan.
In 2006, ADB assisted in the implementation of the state program "Drinking Water" by providing a loan in the amount equivalent to 5.3 billion tenge to address water supply and sanitation in rural settlements of South Kazakhstan, North Kazakhstan and Akmola regions.
'Currently, we are working on the following directions: rehabilitation of irrigation canals in five regions of Kazakhstan, development of a master plan for integrated water resources management for Astana, creation of a knowledge center on water resources jointly with Agrotekhab on the basis of the Kazakh National Agrarian University of Almaty, he said.
Since joining ADB in 1994, Kazakhstan has received around $4.9 billion in sovereign and non-sovereign loans, and guarantees for agriculture and irrigation, education, finance, transport, water supply and sanitation sectors.
Last September, the financial institution presented a new country partnership strategy, according to which ADB plans to invest about 1 trillion tenge in agriculture, water, energy, rural and urban development, transport, health, education and financing of small and medium enterprises by 2021.
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