Ashgabat, 7 Nov—In the part 2 of this ongoing series (published in the Bulletin on 6 Nov) we misconstrued and inadequately reported the remarks of Cevdet Denizer, the country director in Turkmenistan of ADB.
Here is the correct position, as received from ADB:
“ADB has been involved in the project going back to 2003 when the institution was designated as the TAPI secretariat. In 2013 ADB was appointed as the Transaction Advisor to TAPI which accelerated project preparation leading to the signing of the Shareholders Agreement in December 2015. This was followed by the signing of the Investment Agreement among TAPI shareholders. [At that point ADB’s Transaction Advisor role officially ended].
“When ADB President visited Turkmenistan in September 2016 he met with the President of Turkmenistan who requested ADB to serve as Financial Advisor and requested ADB support for financing the project. ADB President has indicated that ADB “would be pleased to act as the advisor to mobilize resources from other financial institutions and that ADB would also consider financing shareholder equity in the TAPI project company, and provide non-sovereign loans and credit enhancement.
“Having strong safeguards for fiduciary management, sound procurement processes and appropriate social and environmental assessments would significantly contribute for financing of the project at a reasonable cost.”
ADB has also clarified that it is hoped that the Financial Advisory Services Agreement (FASA) would be signed soon between ADB and the TAPI Company.
To be continued . . . /// nCa