Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

GM Uzbekistan sales fall

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – GM Uzbekistan sold 1,269 cars in Russia in January, down 37% on the same period in 2015, media reported quoting the Automobile Manufacturers Committee of the European Business Association which releases data on sales. Russia is GM Uzbekistan’s main market. GM Uzbekistan is important because it is one of the few relatively successful projects with Western business in Uzbekistan. Low oil prices have caused a recession in Russia which has impacted the rest of the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Uzbek President expresses homophobia

FEB. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov said “Western values” were the cause of “vulgar” practices, such as homosexual relations. Speaking to Uzbek press, Mr Karimov, 78, said that homosexuality for him was a form of a mental illness. Homosexuality is illegal in Uzbekistan and can be punished with up to three years in prison. Human rights groups regularly rate Uzbekistan as one of the most oppressive countries in the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Uzbek capital installs bus wifi

FEB. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tashkent’s state-owned bus company Toshshahartranshizmat has started to trial free wifi on its buses around the Uzbek capital, media reported, a signal of just how ubiquitous wifi has become in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan’s security forces closely monitor internet use. Uzbekistan is considered one of the most repressive countries in the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Taliban attack Uzbek-Afghan power line

JAN. 26 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Taliban militants attacked and badly damaged a power line sending electricity to Afghanistan from Uzbekistan, a warning sign for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan who are hoping to develop a power-supply network to Pakistan across Afghan territory.

The attack in the northern Baghlan district cut power to Kabul and underlined the Taliban’s ability to attack targets, seemingly at will, in the north of the country. Last year it captured the town of Kunduz near the border with Tajikistan. Russia and Central Asian governments have warned that a powerful Taliban threatens to destabilise the region.

Afghanistan has become an increasingly important trade and diplomatic partner for Central Asia. It has developed a series of power supply deals with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Most ambitiously Afghanistan will also host an electricity power line running from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan, dubbed CASA-1000, and a gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan to India, called TAPI.

Both projects need a stable Afghanistan to be successful. The attack on the power line running from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan has severely reduced electricity to Kabul in the short-run and will make policy makers in Central Asia the West nervous in the long-run.

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Editorial: Taliban threat for Uzbekistan

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – For policy makers involved in pushing the CASA-1000 and TAPI projects, reports from Afghanistan that the Taliban have attacked and badly damaged part of a power line sending electricity to Kabul from southern Uzbekistan is the stuff their nightmares are made of.

CASA-1000 is the World Bank-backed $1.1b project that will supply Pakistan with power from hydro-stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. TAPI is the name of a pipeline that will pump gas from Turkmenistan to India.

Both projects will transit across Afghanistan and form part of a loose north-south Silk Road that US officials have been touting for the past decade. The rub is that they require a stable Afghanistan and that, it appears, is exactly what they don’t have.

If the Taliban are attacking power lines running from Uzbekistan to Kabul then what would stop them attacking a power line running to neighbouring Pakistan or a pipeline running to India?

For each project, the leaders now have to inspect their security systems once again. Costs and doubts about both projects will be rising.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Uzbek authorities urge anti-IS propaganda

JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan are forcing parents of men and women who have fled Uzbekistan to join the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq apologise for their sons and daughters on state television, the eurasianet.org website reported. The footage of sobbing, elderly parents is supposed to encourage others to monitor their children more closely. Central Asian governments are increasingly worried about IS recruitment from the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Uzbek leader cuts cotton harvest

JAN. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov said in a speech he wanted to switch some cotton fields to growing vegetables, perhaps a sign agricultural self-sufficiency has become a more important objective for Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest will fall to 3m tonnes by 2020 from its current 3.5m tonne crop.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

VimpelCom to pay $600m fine for Uzbek bribes

JAN. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms company Vimpel- Com said it would plead guilty to bribing Uzbek government officials for mobile phone licences and agree to pay a $600m settlement in the United States, bringing a row over corruption in Uzbekistan that has also involved Sweden’s TeliaSonera and Norway’s Telenor closer to an end.

Sources close to the company told the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti that the amount that VimpelCom is ready to pay is lower than the $900m it set aside in the last months of 2015 for possible penalties.

A prosecution team at the New York District Court has been target- ing VimpelCom and MTS, another Russian company, who allegedly paid around $500m in exchange for mobile licences, but other companies have been dragged into a row that centres on corruption in Uzbekistan

In November, Norwegian police arrested Jo Lunder, VimpelCom’s ex-CEO for alleged bribe paying. Earlier, Norwegian authorities had sacked the chairman of Telenor, a company that owns — and wants to sell — a 33% stake in VimpelCom.

A parallel investigation is looking into a similar corruption issues at TeliaSonera, a Swedish competitor to VimpelCom in Uzbekistan. TeliaSonera now wants to sell its Eurasian unit.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

VimpelCom bribe fine in Uzbekistan

JAN. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s VimpelCom said that it was prepared to pay a $600m for bribes it paid in Uzbekistan to gain access to mobile phone licences. The row is part of a wider corruption investigation centred around bribes paid by international telecoms companies to gain access to Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

Uzbekistan searches for assets

JAN. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan is trying to recover up to $1m of assets frozen in bank accounts in Europe belonging to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, media reported. Ms Karimova has been under house arrest in Tashkent for nearly two years. She was once considered a potential successor to her father. Swiss authorities are investigating her for money laundering.

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(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)