Japan's state-run Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) has loaned Turkmenistan 500 million dollars (370 million euros) to build a fertiliser plant, a state newspaper said Saturday. The credit is for an ammonia and urea plant to be built by Japanese firms Kawasaki Plant Systems and Sojitz Corporation in the city of Mari in the south of the Central Asian state where its vast cotton industry is based, the Neutral Turkmenistan daily reported.
Ex-Soviet Turkmenistan harvests about one million tonnes of cotton yearly, according to official sources, and is among the world's top 10 largest cotton producers.