Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Editorial: Uzbek buses

APRIL 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – People in Uzbekistan will find it harder to pay both their utility bills and bus fares from this month.

The government has ordered price increases across the board from April 1, signalling latent inflation in its economy.

Utility prices went up around 8.5% but bus prices have risen by 20% and this is going to be significant. Public transport in Tashkent delivers several hundreds thousand passenger journeys every day, making bus ticket prices a highly sensitive issue.

The city government blamed high fuel prices for the new ticket price of 1,200 sum ($0.41 at the official rate).

Officially, the Uzbek sum has lost only 10% of its value over the past six months against the US dollar, but Black Market rates tell a different story.

The Uzbek currency is spiralling downwards and this will push up inflation. Accurate economic data is hard to come by from Uzbekistan but there is no arguing with the higher bus prices. This is the accurate inflation measure that is needed to gauge price rises in Uzbekistan.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Uzbekistan jails spy

APRIL 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Uzbek citizen received a 16-year jail sentence in Uzbekistan for spying for Tajikistan. The televised trial showed the man, Sharifjon Asrorov, confessing the alleged crimes. Tensions between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan continue to be high. Governments in Central Asia use espionage crimes to discredit rival neighbours.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Russian company launches Bukhara power station

APRIL 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eriell, a Russian oil service company, and Enesol, a UAE-based renewable energy company, said they have launched a 1.2MW mobile solar station, the first of its kind in the Commonwealth of Independent States to power Lukoil’s upstream operations in Kandym, near the border with Turkmenistan. Eriell is one of Lukoil’s largest suppliers in Uzbekistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan expropriates resorts

APRIL 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz government signed a decree to retake possession of four Uzbek-owned resorts near Lake Issyk-Kul. Buston, Rokhat, Dilorom, and Golden Sands are all owned by Uzbek entities, both public and private. These are Soviet- era vacation resorts that had been built in the 1960s. Tensions have been running high between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan since ethnic fighting in Osh in 2010.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Bus prices rise in Uzbekistan

APRIL 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The cost of public transport in Uzbekistan, which is run by the state, rose 20% on April 1, various opposition websites reported. The price increase is more evidence of inflationary pressure building in the Uzbek economy. Utility prices have also risen recently and information leaking out of Uzbekistan has suggested that the value of the Uzbek sum currency on the Black Market has fallen.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Uzbek-Kyrgyz border tensions dip

MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan met to defuse a border row that had threatened to bubble over into conflict earlier this month. After the meeting, Uzbek forces pulled their soldiers and tanks away from the contested areas that they had moved into a week earlier.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Russia forgives Uzbekistan’s debt

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian Duma ratified an inter- governmental agreement to pardon most of Uzbekistan’s debt. Uzbekistan will now pay $25m of its $889m debt to Russia but it will also withdraw any claims to the Soviet Diamond Fund which contains some of the world’s most expensive jewellery from the Tsarist era. Russia and Uzbekistan agreed to scrap the debt in November 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Uzbek capital closes tram lines

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The mayor of Uzbekistan’s capital, Rakhmonbek Usmonov, ordered officials to shut down tram lines across the city and sell most of the ageing trolley cars. The city administration had already started dismantling some of the lines. Almaty, in Kazakhstan, has also said it is phasing out its Soviet-era tram system.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Uzbekistan sends soldiers to bolster border with Kyrgyzstan

MARCH 18/24 2016, OSH, Kyrgyzstan (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan sent two armoured personnel careers and solders its border near the Kyrgyz city of Osh as tension escalated in southern Kyrgyzstan ahead of local elections.

Senior officials from Kyrgyzstan’s government called the Uzbek military manoeuvres a provocation and President ALmazbek Atambayev cancelled a trip to Tashkent set for June to attend a conference of the region’s quasi military group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

“The Kyrgyz people are not the ones who will be kneeling, fearing [Uzbekistan’s] forces,” Mr Atambayev said at a press conference.

This appears to be an escalation of tension between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan argues that Uzbekistan’s actions violate a bilateral agreement against the militarisation of the border.

Large portions of the 1,300-km border between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are undefined, dotted with enclaves and exclaves, where Kyrgyz and Uzbek people live. There are sizable Uzbek and Kyrgyz minorities in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, respectively.

Now, access to some border crossing points has been restricted. Officials in southern Kyrgyzstan reported that some anti-Uzbekistan demonstrations have broken out.

Kyrgyz PM Temir Sariyev appealed for calm.

“Nobody forbids protests but let us not be enemies from within, we must be united. Without unity we cannot solve foreign policy issues,” he said.

The unrest also comes at a sensitive time for Kyrgyzstan. It is holding regional elections in five southern cities, including Osh, on March 27.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Uzbekistan Airways starts flights to Tokyo

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned airline Uzbekistan Airways said it started a new weekly service between Tashkent and Tokyo Narita. The company also said the frequency will double to two flights per week from the end of March. Relations between Uzbekistan and Japan have been improving and Japanese businesses are investing heavily in Uzbekistan’s energy and mining sectors.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)