The amount of funding allocated for U.S. development spending in 2012 as part of the $1 trillion Omnibus spending bill passed by Congress a few weeks ago is a surprising achievement considering the current atmosphere of paralysis and partisan bickering in Washington. The bill gives $2.6 billion-an increase of 37 percent in spending over 2011- for capital increases and replenishments for major multilateral agencies and funds, such as the World Bank and IMF. In addition, funding to U.S. foreign assistance programs will rise slightly from $21.2 billion in 2011 to $21.5 billion next year.

The fact that the Obama administration got almost everything it requested in development spending is remarkable considering earlier this year the House had zeroed out contributions to multilateral agencies entirely, suggesting that it would be a hard lift to get any funding approved despite the fact that U.S. contributions had been painstakingly negotiated as part of a global burden-sharing arrangement. An additional complication was that the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank had all come forward with requests for more capital at the same time. Capital increases for international financial institutions are rare events; the last capital increase for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was in 1988. However, they were synchronized this year because large-scale emergency lending in response to the global downturn had quickly depleted the available headroom for future lending across several agencies.  Full article is here.

http://www.uzdaily.com of 1/11/2012

Uzvodenergo (Uzbek Water Energy), which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management of Uzbekistan) started construction of Kamchik hydro power station at Ahangaran river of Tashkent region with the cost of US$45.5 million.  Prime agency reported that new power station will have capacity of 18 megawatt and will produce 60 million kilowatt-hour electricity a year in line with the feasibility study, approved in December 2011. The ower station will use natural water flow and it will be constructed in three years.  Uzvodenergo representative said that the company started construction works. It is planned to announce tender on purchase of equipment in the first quarter of 2012. The project will be financed due to own resources of Uzvodenergo.  Uzvodenergo developed a programme on development of small hydro power stations for 2011-2015, which envisages implementation of nine projects with the cost of US$260 million.  It is planned to construct seven new and reconstruct two existing small hydro power stations in Tashkent and Surkhandarya region.  The project implementation will allow to increase generating capacities from 394 megawatt in 2010 to 613 megawatt in 2015, which will allow to increase production of electricity at the small hydro power stations from 1,115 billion kilowatt-hour to 2.19 billion kilowatt-hour in the reporting period. This will help to save 685 million cubic meters of gas a year.  The project will be financed due to resources of Uzvodenergo, received from realization of electricity from existing stations, as well as foreign loans and credits from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan.