Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan issued a joint statement pledging their support for a proposed US$680 million regional electricity transmission project that would supply summer surplus power from Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic to the Afghan capital of Kabul and the north west of Pakistan.

The joint statement on the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA 1000) was issued after a meeting in Washington DC with World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. This is the first phase of a program to create a regional electricity market by facilitating electricity trade between the energy-resource rich countries of Central Asia, and the energy-deficit countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan in South Asia. A transmission link from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan was opened recently, and the planned CASA 1000 project will link Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic to South Asia.

"The Central Asian Republics, with large energy resource potential, are well placed to help energy-constrained South Asia, while still meeting their own domestic energy needs," said Zoellick. "This project promises to bring substantial benefits for all four countries and could usher in a new era of regional cooperation that would promote sustained growth and help overcome poverty."

The World Bank is consulting with all Central Asian countries about the proposed CASA 1000 project and other such development programs. The project will be implemented in a way that protects the environment and the water resource needs of the region.

The planned Project would develop the necessary physical infrastructure and create the institutional and legal framework to transmit surplus power available from existing generation facilities in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The physical infrastructure for CASA 1000 is likely to include:

• A 500 kV High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission system between Tajikistan and Pakistan through Afghanistan;
• An AC transmission link from the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan to connect to the HVDC line from Tajikistan to South Asia;
• As well as the necessary electricity sub-stations in Kabul, Peshawar and Sangtuda (in Tajikistan).

The Joint Statement said the two Presidents "recognized that the completion of CASA 1000 - which is being designed to accommodate an expanded volume of power in the future - will catalyze additional energy investments and trade both in the four CASA countries as well as in the region, and that it could have a positive demonstration effect for other regional infrastructure projects between their two countries.

Several international financial institutions, including the Islamic Development Bank and the World Bank Group, are supporting this effort. The World Bank Group is participating through its affiliates IDA and IBRD, which lend to developing country governments; and IFC, its private sector arm, through IFC InfraVentures, a new early-stage infrastructure project development fund for frontier countries.