Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Western banks agree $500m loan for Lukoil subsidiary working in Uzbekistan

NOV. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Uzbek subsidiary of Russian energy company Lukoil received a loan of $500m from various European and Japanese financial institutions to develop the Gissar gas and condensate field in Uzbekistan.

A consortium of banks — Italy’s Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, Russia’s VTB, Dutch lender ING, Japan’s Mizuho Bank, France’s Natixis and Austria’s Raiffeisenbank — has agreed to give the loan to Soyuzneftegaz Vostok, Lukoil’s subsidiary in Uzbekistan.

This is important because, by providing Soyuzneftegaz Vostok with a loan, Western banks are indirectly investing in Uzbekistan and, also, lending Lukoil funds. Lukoil is under US sanctions but not European sanctions.

The five-year loan will help Lukoil expand the Gissar project, which has produced around 1.3b cubic metres/year since 2011. The company plans to grow production to 4.8b cubic metres/year by 2017 and build a gas treatment complex near the field. Earlier this year, Lukoil said it was looking to obtain a loan from South Korean lenders and that it needed a $1b cash injection to com- plete the upgrade.

Sanctions were imposed on Russian companies after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Uzbek delegation visits Ashgabat

NOV. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek deputy PM Ulugbek Rozukulov led a delegation to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, official Turkmen media reported. Mr Rozukulov’s mission is part of a drive by acting president Shavket Mirziyoyev to improve Uzbekistan’s international relations since the death in September of Islam Karimov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Uzbeks and Tajiks face Taliban threat

NOV. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A senior Afghan army commander in the north of Afghanistan said that the Taliban was encouraging Uzbek and Tajik radical militants to infiltrate Central Asia. The Pajhwork reported that Lt. Gen. Sher Aziz Kamawal had said that the Taliban was using instability in Kunduz region, on the border with Uzbekistan, as a launchpad for militants to move into Central Asia. Governments in Central Asia have been increasingly concerned about Taliban encroachment north.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Comment: C.Asia and S.Caucasus eye up a Trump presidency, says Kilner

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Donald Trump, the incoming US president, has a long list of issues that need tackling in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, not least the dominance of China and Russia.

Central Asia, in particular, has traditionally been an arena where the world’s great powers have shadow-boxed, testing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This is just as true today as it was during the 19th century’s Great Game between Russia and Britain. Now, though, China has entered the fray and the West is led by the US and not Britain.

Since NATO withdrew most of its forces from Afghanistan in 2013/14, US interest in Central Asia has waned and it has ceded diplomatic, economic and cultural influence to Russia and China.

When she was Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013, Hillary Clinton promoted a new north-south Silk Road running from Central Asia to India. This was to be US soft power in action, a commercial push to rival influences exerted by China through its loans and by Russia through its diplomatic and energy levers. It hasn’t shaped up to much, and Clinton wont now be able to see it through, but Trump, a businessman and reality TV star, may be well-placed to invigorate this north-south Silk Road.

Governments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus will also be watching his policies on NATO, Russia and Iran.

Georgia has, perhaps, the most to be concerned about. It has struck out on a determinedly Western direction and needs a strong US and NATO as a counterpoint to Russia. If the US’ commitment to NATO wanes, Georgia will be more vulnerable to Russian aggression. Certainly its two breakaway states, Russia-backed Abkhazia and South Ossetia, will feel emboldened.

Barack Obama brought Iran back into the international community by partly lifting sanctions linked to the development of its nuclear sector. Its reemergence was heralded in Central Asia and the South Caucasus as an opportunity. They will be looking to a US led by Trump to boost, and not deflate, Iran’s place in the world. They want Iran to be an economic driver.

And the US’ relationship with Russia is important too. If US-Russia relations don’t improve, and the Russian economy continues to shrink, this filters through to Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

They will be looking for an improvement in US- Russia relations to generate a boost for the Russian economy.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Uzbek businessman complains to President

NOV. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a televised show, Olim Sulaimanov, director of a small trading company in Uzbekistan, explained how his company had been raided by Uzbek police, Eurasianet reported. Mr Sulaimanov, whose company exports fruits and vegetables to Russia, appealed to acting-President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to unfreeze his company’s assets.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Uzbekistan names street after Karimov

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan authorities have floated the prospect of renaming Kattakurgan, a city near Samarkand, after Islam Karimov, the local service of Russia’s Sputnik News said. Rumours about the possible renaming circulated among Kattakurgan residents, according to Sputnik. Karimov, Uzbekistan’s only post-Soviet president, died in September.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

European Parliament set to approve Uzbek cotton deal

NOV. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An influential European Parliament committee backed a textile trade deal with Uzbekistan that had been moth- balled in 2011 on concerns over the use of child labour.

The vote is a triumph for Uzbekistan and acting-president Shavkat Mirziyoyev as it bestows credibility on the Uzbek cotton sector after years of negative headlines and boycotts by international clothing companies.

The Committee on International Trade will now recommend at a full European Parliament vote in December that a trade deal is made with Uzbekistan.

Reuters quoted Maria Arena, one of the MPs on the committee, as saying that Uzbekistan had improved its labour rights over the past few years.

“The progress made by the Uzbek authorities allows us to move forward and include textiles in our partnership agreement. But we will remain extremely vigilant,” she was quoted as saying.

Last year the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) monitored the Uzbek cotton harvest. It said in a report that there had been major improvements in the way labour was organised and although it was still commonplace for government workers to leave their jobs to pick cotton during the harvest, the use of child labour was far reduced.

Human rights groups, though, were adamant that the European Parliament needed to set an example and avoid a deal with Uzbekistan. In an open letter to the committee sent three days before its meeting, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said that it was because of the European Parliament’s rejection of a trade deal in 2011 that Uzbekistan agreed to open up to UN monitors. It also said that the scenario in Uzbekistan wasn’t as positive as the committee made out.

“We were pleased to note that as a result of international pressure since 2013 children have not been forced to pick cotton on a nationwide scale, and child labour has effectively declined. Yet, local officials reportedly still resort to forced child labour out of a need to fulfil their quotas,” HRW said in its letter.

“Since 2014 we have received steady reports of extortion linked to the cotton harvest.”

Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s most important commodities. For Mr Mirziyoyev, the timing of the recommendation is also important. He faces a presidential election next month.

He is certain to win this election and become the second post-Soviet president of Uzbekistan after Islam Karimov who died in September, but he still needs to win over popular support. Backing from the European Parliament that child labour is reducing in Uzbekistan and a trade deal can now be made will strengthen his position.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Uzbeks mourn their great leader Karimov

SAMARKAND/Uzbekistan, NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Davlat, 33, was standing looking almost dreamily at Islam Karimov’s mausoleum. “I wish he’s ruled for another ten years,” he said.

In the West, Karimov, who ruled Uzbekistan from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, is considered a brutal dictator who ordered his soldiers to shoot his own people. In Uzbekistan, though, ordinary people pay homage to his foresight and magnanimity.

A long line of people were queuing up at the end of last month to pay their respects to Karimov.

The authorities had decided to bury him in Samarkand, where he was born and his mausoleum, like the other grand mausoleums in Uzbekistan’s most famous and most written about city, will gradually become another tourist site.

The Registan, a square in front of three madrassas, is a short walk away. It is the city’s most popular tourist site. It is also where Farkhod, 55, earns a living directing tourists.

“I remember days, when we used to get products like flour and bread only from food cards and now there is nothing that we do not produce ourselves. Cotton, wheat, machines,” he said.

“This is all thanks to Islam Karimov. May his soul rest in peace.”

Back in Tashkent, Bobor smiled when he thought of Karimov.

“I won a golden medal in boxing in 2006 and the President gave me this car,” he said proudly. Although it is now old and problematic, he said that he wouldn’t dream of selling it.

Most ordinary Uzbeks have their own stories of Karimov, focused on his image as a great leader and saviour.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Uzbekistan opening

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Since the passing of late-President Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan has been striding towards improving relations with its neighbours and, perhaps most importantly, its business climate.

This week’s decision to comply with International Labour Organisation regulations on freedom of assembly will allow the country to climb up the rankings of transparency and ease of doing business, as both workers and companies will, at least on paper, will enjoy more freedoms.

In early October, acting President and PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev also said that the authorities will have to ease up on ordering police raids on businesses, which investors have condemned as a way for public officials to ask for bribes. From Jan. 2017, police checks will have to be scheduled, unless there is a clear breach of the law.

Besides integrating better policies in its closed and strict regulatory system, Uzbekistan also seems to be opening up to new trade routes, as it has re-kindled its air link to London. This will open up in December.

Regular flights from Uzbekistan to Europe’s financial capital have suffered hiccups over the past decade and they were finally recently suspended. Uzbekistan Airways’ proposal to re-open the route, even just for a short term, could be important to put Tashkent back on the investors’ map.

All the recent improvements in Uzbekistan’s business sector, however, cannot overshadow problems with political and human rights. In December, Mr Mirziyoyev will be elected president. If Uzbekistan wants to convince investors, he will have to make progress in relaxing its regime and grant more freedoms.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Uzbekistan ratifies ILO treaty on assembly

OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an apparent bid to improve its international business image, Uzbekistan ratified a UN convention that protects workers’ freedom of association and businesses’ rights to form lobby groups.

Acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed into law Convention no. 87 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a UN agency, which had originally been drawn up in 1948.

It is the 154th country, and the last in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, to ratify the Convention. Notably, the US, China and India are among the countries which have not ratified the Convention.

And for Uzbekistan this is something of a landmark. It has been the focus of criticism from international human rights activists, who denounced repression of the opposition and the lack of independent platforms for alternative dialogues.

Many Western clothing companies boycott Uzbek cotton because of its links to forced labour.

Foreign companies have also complained about the difficulties of operating in Uzbekistan, considered one of the most repressive countries in the world, and the ratification of the ILO convention may improve their lobbying potential.

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(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)