Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Pakistan wants closer gas ties with Uzbekistan

MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Pakistan wants to increase energy cooperation with Uzbekistan, media reported, a potential boost for the Uzbek oil and gas sector.
Western energy companies such as London-listed Tethys Petroleum are gradually exiting Uzbekistan because of a worsening business environment.

Pakistan is also lobbying for Uzbekistan to participate in the TAPI pipeline project that would bring Turkmen gas to India, passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Uzbekneftegaz, the national oil and gas company in Uzbekistan, annually produces 63b cubic metres (bcm) of gas mostly for domestic consumption.

The government has a plan to increase both production and exports and to reduce wasteful use by 2020. The aim to export up to 16bcm by 2020 is well short of Uzbekistan’s regional commitments.

Notwithstanding the declining demand in Russia for Uzbek gas, China is asking for 10bcm and Pakistan’s demands might just be impossible to meet.

Furthermore, the TAPI project has proved to be a difficult one to realise and the timeline for its completion in 2017 is still under review.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Uzbekistan says to buy Talgo trains

MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has agreed to buy two high-speed trains from the Spanish company Talgo, media reported. The Uzbek government is spending millions on updating its train network.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)

Uzbekistan and UAE sign $120m deal

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has signed an investment deal with the United Arab Emirates worth a reported $120m, media said. The deals, reports said, would focus on joint investment projects. Uzbekistan has been looking to tap into the Gulf States for investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Leading Uzbek cleric dies

MARCH 10 2015 (The Bulletin) – Muhammad-Sodiq Muhammad-Yusuf, Uzbekistan’s most prominent Islamic scholar, died aged 63. Reports said he died while playing basketball in Tashkent. Muhammad-Sodiq was influential because he was Uzbekistan’s first post-independence religious leader.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Mitsubishi wins large tender in Uzbekistan

MARCH 7 2015 (The Bulletin) – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a Japanese company, has won a tender to build a chemical complex in central Uzbekistan, media reported quoting the Uzbek government press service. Reports said that the complex, which will produce ammonia, will cost around $1b to build. Ammonia is used in fertiliser.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Remittance data to Uzbekistan shows drop

MARCH 10 2015 (The Bulletin) – Remittances to Uzbekistan from Russia dropped by 10% in 2014, media reported quoting a survey by the Russian analytical agency TMT and the CONTACT money transfer system.

While these figures are not official, they do add credence to the picture of tumbling economies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus because of a faltering Russian economy.

Importantly, reports said that analysts expected remittances from Russia to fall by around 25% this year. This will affect most Central Asian and South Caucasus countries, especially Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which rely heavily on the flow of cash from Russia.

Proportionally, remittances make up a smaller proportion of the national income in Uzbekistan. In practice, though, it is a vital economic lifeline for many ordinary people.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

TV host murdered in Uzbekistan

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Popular Uzbek TV host, Rakhmatilla Mirzayev, has been stabbed to death, Uzbek media reported. Media did not give a motive for the murder of Mirzayev who was 60-years-old and had worked for Uzbek TV for 40 years. His death, though, will once again place Uzbekistan’s rule-of-law under scrutiny.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Germany-Uzbekistan trade deal

MARCH 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Berlin, Uzbek officials agreed business deals worth $2.8b, Uzbekistan’s trade ministry said. The statement said most of the deals were related to various infrastructure projects. Relations between Germany and Uzbekistan are relatively close. Germany maintains a military base in south Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Tashkent limits internet cafe access

FEB. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tashkent have started to enforce restrictions which limit access to the internet cafes that line the streets of the capital.
Under the new rules, internet cafes have to close by 9pm and minors are banned from them during school hours.

Internet cafes are important in Uzbekistan where the media is predominantly state-controlled and home internet access is severely limited.

The authorities say they want to protect Uzbekistan’s youth from the seedier side of the internet as well as from recruitment videos from the radical group IS. Human rights groups say the real reason is to block free media.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Uzbekistan wants to export cars to Azerbaijan

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s deputy PM, Ulugbek Rozukulov, met with the Azerbaijani economy minister, Shahin Mustafayev to discuss increased cooperation and specifically whether Azerbaijan will be able to buy cars that had been built for the Russia market before the collapse of the rouble and the economic crisis.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)