KEMIN - A ceremony was held Friday to mark the ground-breaking event for a new cement plant with Chinese investment in northern Kyrgyzstan.

The projected cement plant, believed to be largest in Kyrgyzstan on completion, will be located in Kemin, Chui province, about 13 kilometers east of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, with the investment totaling $70 million, according to Sun He, business counselor with the Chinese Embassy in Kyrgyzstan.

Chinese company funds cement plant upgrade in Zimbabwe

As economic and business cooperation serves as an important foundation to bilateral relations between the two countries, Kyrgyzstan and China have been joining hands in building a number of infrastructure projects, such as China-Kyrgyzstan gas pipeline, a highway, reconstruction of a power station in Bishkek, said Sun, who insisted that Friday's event showcased positive prospects of healthy cooperation between the two countries.

While addressing the ground-breaking ceremony, Kyrgyz First Vice Prime Minister Tayirbek Sarpashev said he was confident that the Chinese invested cement plant would not only add more jobs to Kemin, but also bring about tax revenues between $10 million to $15 million upon completion a year to his country.

Zhu Rongjun, general manager of ZETH-Cement, the fully Chinese investment subsidiary registered in Kyrgyzstan and the investor of the new cement plant, said they would use advanced technology for production at the plant and promised that the plant's construction process would also be pollution free.

Upbeat about high cement demand potential in Kyrgyzstan and even in kazakhstan, Zhu said the plant would start formal construction later this year and be completed and put into production in 15 months.