Kazakhstan and China have agreed to work together on a hydropower dam on the Jorgos River in the Almaty region bordering China. With an area of 2.7 million square kilometers (1.05 million square miles), Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country and the largest landlocked country in the world. It is equivalent in size to Western Europe.
Kazakh Agriculture Minister Akylbek Kurishbayev and Chinese Water Resources Vice-Minister Jiao Yong signed the agreement.
A preliminary agreement on the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Horos River was reached two years ago, according to which the Kazakh side developed design estimates and submitted the documents to their Chinese partners.
Construction will begin in January 2011 and should be finished by the end of 2013. Kazakhstan and China each will invest US$3 million in the project.
HydroWorld.com reports that the dam is designed to distribute water from the trans-border river equally between the neighboring countries.