At the foot of the Hissar Mountains, Tajik engineer Firdavs Hasanov walks through a maze of gleaming machinery at the newly operational Tajik Cement CJSC plant. The facility, spanning 35 hectares near Dushanbe, represents a technological leap made possible through Chinese expertise—a stark contrast to the outdated equipment Hasanov operated for ten years at the old plant.
“Our previous facility felt like working with 20th-century tools in a 21st-century world,” Hasanov told KhabarAsia. The shuttered plant had become economically unviable, plagued by high energy costs and environmental concerns. Today, real-time sensors and automated batching systems from Chinese partners enable precise production monitoring, reducing waste by 40% according to preliminary data.
The $120 million project aligns with Tajikistan’s national development strategy to modernize infrastructure and expand exports. With annual capacity tripled to 1.2 million tons, the plant now supplies neighboring Afghanistan and Uzbekistan while meeting domestic construction demands. Environmental upgrades have cut particulate emissions by 60%, addressing longstanding community concerns.
This collaboration forms part of broader technology transfers between the Chinese mainland and Central Asian partners under the Belt and Road Initiative. Industry analysts note the project’s potential to serve as a model for upgrading Soviet-era industrial infrastructure across the region through sustainable, smart manufacturing solutions.
