JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A human rights campaigner in Uzbekistan told the eurasianet.org website that police sexually abused her when they detained her last month for photographing forced labour in cotton fields. The UN and other organisations have complained of torture and sexual abuse in police custody previously.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) cut its growth rate estimate for GDP in 2015 in Uzbekistan to 7% from an earlier prediction of 7.8%. The falling value of the rouble and a drop in global oil prices have hit growth rates across the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Seoul, Uzbek president Islam Karimov met his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye to sign a series of deals and to confirm renewed Uzbekistan-Korean partnership. South Korea has been building links with Uzbekistan, rich in natural resources.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A senior Uzbek official hinted that Uzbekistan wanted to increase its export of refined cotton fabrics. Media quoted Dilbar Mukhamedova, a senior official in UzbekYengil- Sanoat, the state company which produces light industrial goods, as saying that Uzbekistan currently produces $1b of refined cotton products.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tashkent ordered the closure of Noviy Vek, a privately owned weekly newspaper for, apparently, undermining the moral values of the country. Uzbekistan has one of the worst records for free press in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s Central Bank denied it was restricting access to US dollars as a form of controlling its currency.
Two days earlier, the Tashkent-based Uzmetronom.com website quoted unnamed but, supposedly, reliable sources as saying that the Central Bank had halted the process for foreign and local companies to convert their local currency into US dollars for an unspecified period of time.
This is critical for companies which are keen to get their cash out of the country. Not being allowed to convert it severely undermines their operations.
Now, though media have quoted the Uzbek Central Bank as saying that this is not true.
Like the other countries in Central Asia, Uzbekistan trying to cope with a drop in oil prices and a fall Russia’s economy which has rippled across the region.
Last week, media reported that a senior official in the Uzbek Central Bank had written a letter to his superiors to warn that the country was running out of cash and that it could hardly afford to pay for vital services and salaries.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Beeline, mobile operator VimpelCom’s brand in the former Soviet Union, said its revenue in Q1 had increased by 13% in Uzbekistan. It said that while its customer base had fallen by 1%, mobile data revenues had grown by 24%.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbeks’ lack of confidence in the som has weakened Uzbekistan’s banks, reduced their capital and hit their ability to pay salaries and pensions.
This was the withering assessment of Ulugbek Mustafayev, a deputy chairman of Uzbekistan’s Central Bank, according to a report by the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
RFE/RL said it had seen a copy of a letter, dated April 10 and stamped “official use only” written by Mr Mustafayev to Uzbek PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The letter gives a vital, and rare, insight into official Uzbek thinking on monetary policy. It’s virtually unheard of for a senior official to speak out against his or her bosses.
In the letter, Mr Mustafayev said a lack of confidence by the population in the som currency had pushed people into relying on the black market and US dollar payments over bank accounts. He said that this had created a shortfall in capital of more than 2 trillion som ($620m) and that state pensions and salaries to interior ministry officials, the defence ministry and other government workers were not being paid.
The regional financial crisis and the fall in the som/dollar exchange rate has reduced the population’s trust in the national currency and in financial institutions.
Most transactions in Uzbekistan are reportedly carried out in cash. Mr Mustafayev said that consumers had paid in far less than expected into Uzbek banks in the first quarter of the year.
The Uzbek system, already frail, is becoming weaker, Mr Mustafayev said in his letter.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek foreign minister Suleymanmurad Guladov travelled to Brussels to meet EU officials, including Maros Sefcovi, the European Commission vice president in charge of energy policy. While no deals were signed, the meeting is a reminder of the growing relationship between Europe and Central Asia over energy.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan will increase oil and gas production by 9% in the next five years, Uzbekneftegaz the state oil and gas company, said. Media quoted Uzbekneftegaz representatives at a conference in Tashkent aimed at foreign investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
