Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Fruit exports to Kazakhstan to increase

MARCH 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is looking to boost the value of its fruit exports to Kazakhstan by 30% to $410m this year, media reported quoting Uzbekzokovaktovholding, the state- linked holding company. The 2017 target is an indication of the improved relations between Uzbekistan and its neighbours since Pres. Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over from Islam Karimov in September.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

EBRD to start lending to Uzbekistan after decade-long break

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MARCH 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD rounded off a visit to Uzbekistan by promising to invest in the country for the first time in a decade, giving Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev a major boost.

EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti flew to Tashkent to meet Mr Mirziyoyev to discuss the terms of the return, a decade on since a row over human rights scuppered relations.

In a statement, the EBRD said that it was looking forward to helping to give private enterprise a boost and to help open up the country after years of isolation under Islam Karimov.

“I am delighted that the EBRD is re-engaging with Uzbekistan. These discussions have been highly fruitful and there is great interest on both sides in reinvigorating the relationship between the Bank and Uzbekistan,” the EBRD quoted Mr Chakrabarti in a press release.

“This is a new beginning in EBRD- Uzbek relations.”

It is only seven months since the death of Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan for 25 years, but already Mr Mirziyoyev has attracted much needed investment into the country. Earlier this month Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao visited Uzbekistan and promised to lend $573m to fund four projects, including a scheme to fund small businesses in rural areas.

Funding from institutional banks such as the EBRD and the ADB have been instrumental in helping Central Asia’s economies develop. The EBRD phased out its involvement in Uzbekistan gradually after it held its 2003 AGM in Tashkent. That meeting was marked by a row between Uzbekistan and the EBRD over media freedom and prisoners’ rights. The relationship never recovered during Karimov’s lifetime and the EBRD’s last investment in Uzbekistan was in 2007.

As a comparison, the EBRD said that it has invested €11.6b into Central Asia. Of this, Uzbekistan, where roughly half of Central Asia’s population live, received €894m. That’s roughly 8% of the total.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

China eyes up investment in Uzbek gas field

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China is eyeing up a major investment in a gas field in southern Uzbekistan, media reported. The gas field is operated by the Uzbek-Chinese JV New Silk Road Oil & Gas Company, which is likely to contract China’s state-run CNPC to develop the site, funded by loans from China. China has been pushing hard to expand its project portfolio inside Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

ODIHR chief flies to Uzbekistan

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Michael Georg, head of the OSCE’s election monitoring unit ODIHR, travelled to Tashkent for a meeting with the Uzbek foreign ministry on its findings from its election monitoring mission in December. The meeting is likely to precede a final election monitoring report from ODIHR. The elections last December were the first time that ODIHR had monitored an election in Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Uzbek Central Bank issues new banknote

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MARCH 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Central Bank printed its first 10,000 som banknote, an official nod, perhaps, to high levels of inflation and the falling value of its currency. At today’s official exchange rate of 3,453/$1, the new note will be worth just under $3. The Central Bank introduced the 5,000 som banknote in 2013 and the 1,000 som banknote in 2001. Uzbekistan’s economy has been under pressure, pushing up inflation and devaluing its currency. The som has fallen by 13% since August.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

ADB agrees $573m loan to Uzbekistan

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MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank agreed to give Uzbekistan a series of loans worth $573m in a deal that signifies that institutional lenders consider Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev worth doing business with. A $100m loan has been earmarked for small businesses in rural communities and another $121m loan has been put against developing Tashkent’s water supply.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

IFC to help cotton farmers in Uzbekistan

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MARCH 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The IFC, part of the World Bank, is developing a programme to help cotton growers in Uzbekistan produce better cotton, more efficiently and without forced labour, an industry website reported. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s key currency earners but its reputation has been dented over the past few years because of the use of child labour to pick cotton. Many Western brands have boycotted it. The IFC is trialling its programme across 12 farms. If it is successful, it will roll it out to 3,000.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

EBRD set to re-engage with Uzbekistan

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MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major boost for Uzbekistan under its new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) hinted that it was going to re-engage with the country after a 10 year break.

The move comes a month after EBRD delegates flew to Tashkent for talks with the Uzbek government on how best to reignite the lending process, a credit line that was cut in the late 2000s after rows over corruption, human rights and media freedom.

Reuters news agency quoted two anonymous EBRD officials in their London office as saying that they expected the bank to signal that it was re-starting lending to projects in Uzbekistan within a couple of days. They also said a visit to Tashkent later this month by EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti had also been discussed. By the end of the week no official word had been given but neither had officials refuted the Reuters story.

For Mr Mirziyoyev, a signal from the EBRD that it was preparing to resume normal service would be a major boost. He has been trying to pursue a reform-minded agenda, rolling back some of the more intransigent and isolationist policies that

his predecessor, Islam Karimov, followed. Karimov died in September 2016.

A second Reuters exclusive from Tashkent on March 7 said Mr Mirziyoyev had clashed with some of his ministers over his reform agenda.

The EBRD said that it has lent 900m euro to projects in Uzbekistan, although the flow dropped off in the first decade of the 21st century. In hasn’t approved a project in Uzbekistan since 2007 and doesn’t keep an office in Tashkent. In 2003, Uzbekistan held its AGM in Tashkent, a meeting overshadowed by rows over human rights.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Currencies: Georgian lari, Kazakh tenge, Uzbek som

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pushed up by decent economic data and a rise in interest rates to battle inflation which threatens to pick up this year, the Georgian lari hit a four-month high against the US dollar on March 7 of 2.45/$1, according to data from Bloomberg.

It slipped back slightly towards the end of the week to 2.5/$1 but it is still 9.1% stronger than on Jan. 1.

The Kazakh tenge fell slightly over the past fortnight but it is, too, performing well in 2017, racking up gains of around 5% this year.

As for the Uzbek som, as shown in our graph, the authorities appear to have speeded up their managed devaluation of the currency. The official exchange rate is now at 3,452/$1 an all-time low. The graph clearly shows how the steps taken to devalue the som have increased in size since mid-February. The Uzbek som is now 4.3% weaker against the US dollaxr than it was on Feb. 16. This managed downward trajectory for the som is expected to continue.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Uzbek ministers argue over reforms

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MARCH 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev is facing internal opposition from powerful members of the elite to liberal reforms he wants to push through, various sources told Reuters. They said that his plans to move the Uzbek som to a free float, cancel visas for tourists from some countries and restart a passenger flight with Dushanbe have all been delayed because of resistance from the powerful security services.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)