JAN. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Delegations from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan continued their discussions on how best to delineate their troublesome border. This was the second Uzbek-Kyrgyz border meeting in January. Last year tension flared between the two sides around a disputed border area.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s government has banned private security firms from guarding businesses, media reported. From Feb. 1, companies wanting to employ security will have to hire guards from the interior ministry. The new law will hamper the independence of international companies working in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU Special Representative for Central Asia Patricia Flor travelled to Uzbekistan for the fourth time in 18 months.
Ms Flor met ministers and civil society leaders but not President Islam Karimov. The importance of another mission to Tashkent by Ms Flor is precisely that. It underlines Uzbekistan’s re-emergence in the international arena.
And this is most obviously down to Uzbekistan becoming the fulcrum for NATO’s co-called Northern Distribution Network to move its military kit out of neighbouring Afghanistan and back to Europe.
There has not been a discernible shift in Uzbekistan’s human rights record since government forces allegedly killed hundreds of people at a demonstration in Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan in 2005.
Instead realpolitik has elevated Uzbekistan. Last year, Mr Karimov visited Latvia when it held the rotating EU presidency and next month he travels to Prague. These are important successes for Mr Karimov.
While she was in Tashkent, Mr Flor underlined the EU’s belief in human rights and the rule of law. These are busy times in Uzbekistan for the EU and NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — MTS, the Russian telecoms firm, is reportedly negotiating with Uzbekistan on ways to re-enter the country.
In an interview with Russian media Vladimir Yevtushenko, chairman of Sistema which owns MTS, said that he was already negotiating the company’s return to Uzbekistan.
“Yes, I participate, but there are no predictions,” Mr Yevtushenko said in response to a question by a reporter from the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti on whether he was personally involved in negotiations over MTS potential return to Uzbekistan.
“Being out, well, not working (in Uzbekistan), is also good. Today, for us it is all history. Of course, a return would be good for MTS and for Uzbekistan but, as they say, the devil always lies in the details.”
MTS says that it was chased out of Uzbekistan, where it did have about half the mobile phone subscriber market, in 2012 after a series of tax cases were launched against it. Since then the Uzbek authorities have confiscated MTS equipment in Uzbekistan and unsuccessfully tried to auction it off.
But as well as negotiating with the Uzbek authorities, reports said that MTS has also started proceedings against Uzbekistan at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
For investors, the MTS dispute has become an important yardstick for measuring the problems of doing business in Uzbekistan.
This makes MTS’s carrot and stick approach, both negotiating and prosecuting through the courts, important to watch.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms firm MTS is negotiating with Uzbekistan on possibly re-entering the country after quitting in 2012 over tax disputes, the chairman of its parent company Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenko, told Russian media. At the same time reports say that MTS is challenging Uzbekistan in the international courts for its assets.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will hand out visas more easily to foreign investors, media reported. Under the new rules, signed by Uzbek President Islam Karimov on Jan. 20, foreign investors will be able to obtain a multiple entry visa for their entire investment period rather than three-month-long single entry visas. This is, potentially, good news for foreign investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — US-based Freedom House ranked Uzbekistan as the worst country in the world for civil liberties in its global report for 2014. Human rights groups criticise Uzbekistan for suppressing various basic freedoms, using torture in prisons and forcing children to collect its cotton.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Quoting a source at the Tashkent Prosecutor’s office, the AFP news agency said that in December police arrested two managers at the Coca-Cola joint venture in Uzbekistan for stealing millions of dollars. The story has not been confirmed by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola owns 42.9% of the joint venture.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UN is the latest international agency to predict strong economic growth for Uzbekistan in 2014. In its World Economic Situation and Prospects report it said that the Uzbek economy would grow by 7.1% next year compared to 8% growth last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s economy, according to President Islam Karimov at least, is buoyant.
In a briefing to government ministers on how Uzbekistan’s economy performed last year, Mr Karimov was fairly unequivocal.
He rattled off the numbers. GDP grew last year grew by 8%, industrial output—by 8.8% and agriculture by 6.7%. Meanwhile, he said, inflation was a lower-than-expected 6.8%.
These are all handsome numbers indeed. They’re also the official numbers. Uzbekistan’s economy probably doesn’t look in such rude health at street level where unemployment, spiralling prices and energy shortages are prevalent.
International financial organisations such as the IMF, though, have also said that Uzbekistan’s economy is growing at a rate similar to the one quoted by Mr Karimov. Mr Karimov said that the official 8% economic increase last year had been due mainly to a surge in foreign investments and also jumps in production in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
He was, though, modest enough to suggest that improvements could be made in a handful of sectors including boosting the efficiency of state-run companies and replacing aging infrastructure used on farms
The problem for Uzbekistan is that while the numbers sound good, the reality is different and ordinary people in Uzbekistan are not benefiting from the economic expansion that is so often touted as part of Mr Karimov’s legacy. NGOs in Moscow report a steady stream of Uzbeks heading to Russia for seasonal work.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
