Distinguished Compatriots!

Dear Constructors of Roghun Hydropower Plant!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I am honored and thrilled to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on the occasion of our national grand holiday – the 28^th anniversary of the State Independence of the Republic of Tajikistan and launch of the second unit of Roghun Hydropower Plant as the life-changing facility for our nation.

Roghun HPP is the creation, i.e. offspring of our beloved Motherland’s independence and freedom, and commissioning its second unit on the day of celebration of this national grand holiday is the most precious present to the noble people of Tajikistan.

We launched the first unit of this palace of light recently on November 16 of the last year, and this facility has already generated 570m kv/h of power by far and dispatched it to our country’s energy grid.

Today, every resident of Tajikistan witnessed another festal occasion – launch of the second unit of this source of light, which we ensured thanks to the strong will, strength and hard work of you – dedicated specialists and constructors.

I would like to offer to all of you the sincere gratitude of the Government and the people of Tajikistan, and once again highlight that each of you – patriotic children of our Motherland, highly qualified specialists and constructors and esteemed partners – will go down in the new history of Tajikistan as one of the greatest.

I would also like to offer the gratitude of the Tajik Government and people to heads and specialists of all foreign companies for their good cooperation and close collaboration with engineers and workers from Tajikistan. The State and the Government of our country attach a high priority to the construction of Roghun Hydropower Plant.

I would like to emphasize that through present one of the important facilities of the plant – its third spillway tunnel with radial repair, emergency and main gates was constructed, which was one of the main recommendations of the international experts to ensure safe operation of the plant during the potential water-abundant seasons and right now we witnessed its commissioning.

This tunnel with 15 meters of diameter and 1.8km of length can spill 3500m³ of water per second and its cost amounted to TJS 2.8bn. Alongside other tunnels, this is the first one constructed during the independence period. I have to emphasize that we attach a priority importance to financing of Roghun HPP.

The heads of the plant, contractors and other companies affiliated with the construction of this facility are obliged to ensure targeted and effective spending of allocated resources and avoid squandering.

I would like to highlight once again that this vitally important facility is constructed in line with international safety standards with the use of the latest technologies and in the nearest future it will not only illuminate the houses of residents of Tajikistan but also will serve the countries of the region.

It is worth mentioning that the construction of Roghun HPP entered into its very crucial phase and large-scale activities need to be undertaken. It is important to make efforts every day and undertake many measures to implement these activities. Therefore, the Tajik Government needs to channel its efforts to a sustainable and planned implementation of the Roghun HPP project.

Along with this, everybody starting from managers to regular workers of the companies involved in construction of the plant should fully understand their responsibility to expedite and expand activities on construction of this facility of the century.

Ensuring energy security is among the strategic objectives of the Government and it will mobilize all resources and capacity it has to achieve this objective. Implementation of a series of important projects on energy confirms this statement and they will promote improvement of public living standards.

12 public investment projects with the total amount of TJS 16bn aimed at developing the energy sector and supported by the Government of Tajikistan are under implementation at present and TJS 7.6bn has been absorbed within these projects so far. In addition to this, recently we signed a number of agreements with development partners to reconstruct existing assets of Nurek, Kayrakkum and Sarband. In other words, alongside the creation of new energy facilities, we have been implementing reconstruction and rehabilitation of existing power plants in an expedited manner.

The resources allocated for implementation of the project “Kayrakkum Hydropower Plant Reconstruction” with the view of adaptation to climate change amount to TJS 200m, and the cost of the first phase of rehabilitation of Norak Hydropower Plant is USD 350m and Sarband Hydropower Plant is more than USD 136m, which in total amount to TJS 7.2bn.

Construction and reconstruction of hydropower plants, heat and power plants, creation of electricity transmission lines and substations, as well as reform of the energy sector during the recent years made it possible to improvement the public energy supply and operation of energy infrastructure significantly, increase export of power to neighboring countries in summer.

It is also worth mentioning that development of the energy sector is key for sustainable economic growth of Tajikistan and particularly for achievement of our fourth national objective – expedited industrialization of the country.

During Tajikistan’s independence, the energy infrastructure went through radical changes and the implementation of a number of investment projects provided an opportunity to create unified energy grid in the country and ensure adequate supply of economic areas of the national economy and the population through local generation.

In this period, with the construction of Sangtuda-1 and Sangtuda-2 hydropower plants, Dushanbe-2 Thermal Power Plant and launch of the first unit of Roghun HPP and a number of small HPPs new assets with the capacity of 1900MW became functional.

After construction of the electricity transmission lines of South-North, Roghun-Dushanbe, Lolazor-Khatlon, Geran-Rumi, Tajikistan-Afghanistan, Khujand-Ayni, Ayni-Rudaki, Kayrakkum-Asht, Kayrakkum – Soughd with the total length of more than 1100km, four 500KW and ten 220KW substations and other energy assets the operation of the unified energy grid improved significantly.

In these milestone moments, I would like to outline with a pride and inspiration that construction of Roghun HPP – the life-changing facility was the dream of our population for many years and it became possible thanks to the strong will, thorough support and patriotic input of the noble people of Tajikistan.

I would like to state with a strong confidence that thanks to cohesive efforts of our optimistic people and courageous input of patriotically minded citizens we will implement all of our good desires and dreams and creative plans in the nearest future.

The day is not far off when free and sovereign Tajikistan will become a powerful and progressive nation and beloved Homeland of Tajiks will be turned into more safe and prosperous state.

Once again, my heartfelt congratulations to the glorious people of Tajikistan, our compatriots living overseas, and all of you, dedicated workers and creators of Roghun HPP on the occasion of the Grand National Holiday – the 28^th Anniversary of the State Independence and on another achievement – launch of the second unit of this largest hydropower plant. I wish you welfare, good luck and new achievements.

May the independence and sovereignty of the new Tajik State last forever!

Long live the brave builders, engineers and specialists of the Roghun Hydropower Plant!

Long live the proud Tajik people, patriotic people, people-creators, people-peacemakers, people-civilizers!

Rogun is a vital facility, space of strive and aspiration and object of dedicated deed of the glorious people of Tajikistan.

Roghun is a prosperous future of the Tajik people, glory and dignity of each person of Homeland and a guarantor of progressive image and reputation of free and sovereign state of the Tajiks.

May your path be bright and happy, my beloved Tajikistan!

I wish you to be always healthy and succeed in your good deeds, dear compatriots!