Kyrgyz leader calls Kambar Ata-2 HPP commissioning historic event.

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30/8 Tass 124

KAMBAR ATA, Kyrgyzstan, August 30 (Itar-Tass) --The commissioning of
the Kambar Ata-2 hydropower plant is an event of historic importance,
Kyrgyzstan's interim President Roza Otunbayeva said on Monday at the plant'
s unveiling ceremony.
Kyrgyzstan currently ranks third among the CIS countries after Russia
and Tajikistan in terms of electricity production, but uses "only 10
percent of its potential," she said.
"Hydropower generation is what our state will base its development
strategy on. Our economy largely depends on hydropower generation, which
is a foundation and a driving force for the entire economy," she stressed
and added that the country's authorities see the electricity production
sector as a top-priority one.
"We have lived though the period of rolling blackouts, when schools
were closed, but now the situation will improve," Otunbayeva said. In her
words, Kyrgyzstan is set to boost electricity production and to export it
to neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan. She also said her country would
seek to attract foreign investments into its hydropower sector. Thus,
talks are conducted with Russia on the latter's participation in the
construction of the Kambar Ata-1 hydropower plant.
The construction of the Kambar Ata-2 plant started back in 1986 but
was suspended after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. It was
resumed only in 2007. Construction works involved 2,500 workers who built
a 60-meter high dam and a water storage reservoir with the capacity of 70
million cubic meters.
The first of the plant's three units with a capacity of 120 megawatt
was commissioned on Monday. It is Kyrgyzstan's seventh electricity plant
on the River Naryn.
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