Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan to give rural households chickens and lemons to boost economy

FEB. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek government plans to give around 2m households who live in rural areas chickens and lemon trees to feed themselves and to trade, the Reuters news agency reported quoting a document published on a government website.

The handouts are a core part of the drive by the new Uzbek administration, headed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to kick-start the rural economy. According to World Bank data, around 14% of Uzbekistan’s 31.3m people live in poverty, mainly in rural areas where two-thirds of the population live.

Specifically, the government wants to give 850,000 families up to 100 chickens each and to help another 1.07m households to build greenhouses for lemon trees. A government agency will then buy back some of these chickens and lemons for export.

Mr Mirziyoyev has been president of Uzbekistan since September 2016 when Islam Karimov died.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

ILO says making progress in scrapping forced labour in Uzbekistan

FEB. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) said that Uzbekistan was making progress in eradicating child labour from its cotton harvests. Uzbekistan has come under intense criticism for using school children to pick the crop. Several Western fashion retailers have refused to stock products which have been made with Uzbek cotton.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Flights to resume between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

FEB. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Somon Air, Tajikistan’s national airline, has scheduled a first Tajikistan-Uzbekistan flight since 1992 for Feb. 10, media reported. Regular flights are expected to start up between Dushanbe and Tashkent on Feb. 20. These flights are important as they signify a sea- change in relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who have quarrelled for years, since the death in September of Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Uzbek president pledges to invest $2.6b developing the Aral Sea region

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev ordered his government to spend $2.6b developing the area around the Aral Sea, a major investment in a region that was decimated by one of the Soviet Union’s most notorious economic development policies.

Reporting on the decree, RFE/RL said that that the investment would create new jobs and homes as well as improve sanitation and medical service.

The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth largest inland water but in the 1960s, the Soviets diverted water from the great Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers that flow from the Pamir mountains into the Aral Sea, toirrigate their cotton fields. The Aral Sea was, literally starved of water. Since then the Aral Sea has lost 90% of its water and become a watchword for man-made environmental disasters.

The eye-catching initiative to regenerate the region comes at a time when Mr Mirziyoyev is trying to set himself apart from his predecessor, Islam Karimov, who died in September. He has ordered officials to repair damaged relations with neighbours and also boosted domestic investment.

Although light on detail, the plan will give Karakalpakstan, the most western and poorest region in Uzbekistan, a boost.

And it needs it. Karakalpakstan’s main city is Nukus, a former secret city built by the Soviets to house workers for their chemical weapons plants. Moynaq, 120km north through the desert, was the main city on the Uzbek side of the Aral Sea. It used to house various industries, including a plant that canned fish for export across the Soviet Union. That plant and the rest of the town now lies rotting and rusting having been abandoned in the 1980s.

Eeking out a living in Moynaq is difficult. One of its main revenue earners now is from tourists travelling from Nukus to walk around and photograph the rusting fishing fleet now marooned 60km from the Aral Sea. It is described as a ships’ graveyard.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Freedom House says rights in Central Asia and the South Caucasus worsened in 2016

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its annual report mapping out the status of just how free people are to express themselves, the US-based NGO Freedom House said that in 2016 the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus cracked down on civil liberties.

Freedom House rates Georgia as the best place for civil liberties in the region, with a “Partly Free” status. It also gave this ranking to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The others were ranked “Not Free” with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan listed as two of the most repressive regimes in the world.

“Apparently unnerved by the repercussions of a lengthy slump in oil prices, the rulers of Azerbaijan and the Central Asian states used tightly controlled constitutional referendums to extend their rule into the future,” Freedom House wrote.

The Freedom House assessment of civil rights broadly mirrors the assessment of human rights groups who have been warning of worsening conditions in the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

New Uzbek bank to support agriculture set up

JAN. 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will set up a new bank called Uzagroexportbank to support agriculture and farm exports, media reported. The new bank is another signal that new president Shavkat Mirziyoyev is trying to boost support for independent businesses. Analysts have previously identified agriculture as a way to boost Uzbekistan’s productivity.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Telia CEO promises sale in Kazakh, Tajik, Uzbek markets

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The CEO of Swedish mobile operator Telia, Johan Dennelind, said that he was confident that he would be able to sell off the company’s remaining assets in its Eurasia region this year. Interest in Telia’s regional asset which include Azercell, Geocell, Ucell, Kcell and Tcell have been light. A corruption scandal in Uzbekistan, linked to a 2008 bribe, triggered the sale.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Currencies: Uzbek Som

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Since the beginning of September, the Uzbek som has dropped from an official rate of just under 3,000/$1 to around 3,265/$1 – a fall in value of nearly 9%.

It’s a tightly managed currency and, straight away it needs to be pointed out that the unofficial black market rate for the som is around a third cheaper, but this managed devaluation is still important. Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan since 1991, died at the beginning of September and since then the devaluation of the som as accelerated. The graph shows this inflection point.

New Uzbek president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, gas said that he wants to promote personal liberties in Uzbekistan. This attitude has also extended to liberalising currency controls and Mr Mirziyoyev has talked about making it easier for ordinary Uzbeks and companies to take money out of the country. He may also want to reduce the price of an overvalued som more quickly than his predecessor.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Uzbekistan signs trade deal with Afghanistan

JAN. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov led a delegation to Kabul to sign a trade declaration that both sides said should lift bilateral trade to $1.5b. The deal highlights improved trade relations between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, something that both sides have been working towards.

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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)f

Uzbekistan hints that exit passports may be scrapped

JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A presidential decree in Uzbekistan appeared to suggest that the hated exit visas that ordinary Uzbeks need to be able to leave the country may be scrapped.

If the decree becomes law, it will herald one of the biggest changes in the way that Uzbekistan is governed and change the power and control the authorities can impose over people.

The scrapping of exit visas was just one section of a long document which focused on relaxing identification and travel documents. It said that a decision would be made by the third quarter of 2017. There was no timetable, though, on when it would be implemented.

Government officials later tried to row back on the prospect of the authorities relaxing their grip over ordinary people.

The US-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that its journalists had spoken to several officials at the interior ministry who emphasised that the plan was just a proposal and may not be adopted.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)