The China Development Bank, a policy bank, will provide loans to Kazakhstan to build power grids, an official from Kazakhstan said yesterday.

"An agreement on the loans will soon be signed," Mukhamediyev Saken, general representative of Kazakhstan's Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, told China Daily on the sidelines of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) Industry and Business Forum.

"The power grids to be built in Kazakhstan will transmit power to China," he said. He did not disclose any further details.

At the forum, the Export and Import Bank of China signed a US$296 million loan agreement with the Finance Ministry of Tajikistan on building and renovating a highway connecting Tajikistan's capital city Dushanbe with Uzbekistan.

The highway, stretching 355 kilometres, is the largest road construction project in Tajikistan and also the largest joint infrastructure project since the founding of the SCO in 2001.

The highway project is one of the US$900 million worth of lending commitments China made in 2004 to the other five member states.

The two sides also signed a loan agreement for 220-kilovolt power transmission lines, another project in the US$900 million package.

Also yesterday, Tebian Electric Apparatus Co Ltd from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region signed a contract with Tajikistan's State Power Holding Co on 500-kilovolt south-north high-voltage power transmission lines.

Transport, power, telecommunications and energy are major areas for SCO member states to seek co-operation, business people attending the forum said.

Road transport, a major means of traffic for the six neighbouring countries, will be a priority for the SCO, Feng Yulin, vice-minister of communications, said at the forum.

China is putting money into building 12 highways leading to the other five states, Feng said, adding that five are now under construction, stretching to a total length of 5,200 kilometres.