The construction of a Tajik-Uzbek highway, part of regional highway linking up China and Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, will be started soon with preferential loans from China, a Chinese official said in Shanghai Thursday.

 

In fact, China has offered 60 million yuan (US$7.5 million) of free assistance for constructing the Tajik-Uzbek highway, said Feng Zhenglin, Chinese vice minister of communications, at a business forum on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

 

Passenger and commodity transport lines connecting China and other member states of the SCO, including Russia and four central Asian countries, have kept extending and boosted trade and human contacts.

 

In the northeastern and northwestern areas, China is linked through 25 vehicle ports along its borders with other SCO members, including 15 with Russia, seven with Kazakhstan, two with Kyrgyzstan and one with Tajikistan.

 

While trade and economic cooperation with SCO members keeps growing, China is striving to boost road transport along the Eurasian bridge.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2006)