The bank's Sunday statement gives the frame: an agreement on financing large infrastructure projects in Uzbekistan for a total of up to $395 million, signed with the Silk Road Fund at the 11th Belt and Road summit in Hong Kong. The money goes first to the modernisation of transport infrastructure, including the construction of modern toll expressways, and the two sides are to select, appraise and structure the projects together for long-term credit lines from the fund. UzDaily carried the same text on Monday evening.
Under the 2026 state investment programme, the statement says, the bank is to raise up to $1.5 billion from international financial institutions. Of that ceiling, the $395 million is about a quarter, from one Chinese state fund.
The road Hong Kong has named has a price. Construction of the Tashkent-Samarkand toll motorway was launched on 22 August, zamin.uz reported on 31 August: $2.2 billion, China Overseas Engineering Group as the builder, completion targeted for 2030, after which a separate operating company is to be chosen and the road switched to tolls. Transport minister Ilkhom Makhkamov had discussed the financing with Nicholas Ho Lik-chi, who runs Hong Kong's Belt and Road office, on 28 August; Spot reported that the office called the road a priority in its project portfolio.
Of that ceiling, the $395 million is about a quarter, from one Chinese state fund.
It is the bank's third Chinese channel in a week. On 9 September it became the first Uzbek bank with a direct connection to CIPS, China's clearing and settlement system for the yuan; on Sunday it said it plans to be the first Uzbek issuer on the Chinese capital market with a $250 million bond, the deal CAW reported on Monday as agreed with CICC in Hong Kong.
No project, rate or tenor has been published under the $395 million; the wording is the bank's. The programme it belongs to has a ceiling, and a quarter of it now carries a Chinese signature.