NOV. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps reflecting a Russian economic slowdown, sales of cars to Russia at the GM Uzbekistan factory have fallen by a third so far this year compared to 2012, media reported quoting data from the Association of European Business. Russia is the factory’s biggest market. Russia’s economy is vital for Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Navoi, in the centre of Uzbekistan, is becoming increasingly significant to the Uzbek government.
It has designated the area around the Soviet-built town a special economic zone, granting companies tax breaks and other incentives to invest there. It has also developed the airport speedily and aggressively.
Since 2007, Navoi airport has steadily increased in size and scope. On its website, the Navoi airport mission statement is simple and clear: “To become the respected major multi-modal logistics centre at the heart of Eurasia, by connecting international air, rail and overland routes into a single Hub based on Navoi International Airport.”
Uzbekistan has already spent millions on improving facilities at the Navoi airport — it hosts cooling and storage facilities and is able to process 300 tonnes of cargo every day — and now local media have reported that it plans another $35 million investment to improve fuelling facilities.
This is important for Uzbekistan and Central Asia because it puts it in direct competition with Manas airport near Bishkek and Almaty.
There is still a long way to go, of course. Manas is still the US military’s main transport base, although it will withdraw by the middle of next year, and Almaty, in Kazakhstan, is the region’s main commercial centre.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan Airways will charge foreign airlines for airport services at Tashkent in euros from Dec. 1, local media quoted Russian news agency RIA Novosti as saying. Analysts said the move undermines confidence in Uzbekistan’s national currency which is heavily controlled by the authorities.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek government fired the head of its gas pipeline monopoly Uztransgaz, Tulyagan Jurayev, less than a month after the head of Uzbekneftegas, the state energy company, was also sacked. It’s unclear why Mr Jurayev was sacked. Analysts said it may be part of a power struggle in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek financial police closed clothes shops in Tashkent selling Western brands. The raids on Mango, the United Colours of Benetton and others underline the difficulty of business in Uzbekistan. Media reports said the shops were linked to Gulnara Karimova, daughter of President Islam Karimov.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan said it will spend $35m upgrading fuelling facilities at the Navoi airport in the centre of the country. This is important because Uzbekistan wants to turn the airport into the main cargo hub for Central Asia and the general Asia-Europe route.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Around 100 protesters blocked a road in Samarkand, Uzbekistan’s second city, to protest against shortages of electricity and gas to their homes, media reported. Public protests are extremely rare in Uzbekistan, one of the most repressive countries in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — For Uzbek citizens to protest on the streets, a problem must be severe. Very severe. The last time that a major public protest took place was in the town of Andijan, eastern Uzbekistan, in 2005. Police opened fire on the crowd killing dozens, possibly hundreds.
It’s not surprising then that a shortage of gas or electricity in Uzbekistan has failed to trigger street protests of the sort you would expect in other countries. This, though, changed in Samarkand on Nov. 5 when, media reported, roughly 100 residents blocked a road to protest against the shutdown of gas and electricity supplies to their homes.
The protest, which successfully pushed the local authorities into re-starting gas supplies to residents’ homes (at least for now), is important because it underlined just how political and tense the issue has become in Uzbekistan.
It appears, simply, to be a clash of interests between the Uzbek leadership and ordinary citizens.
The Uzbek government wants to meet lucrative contracts to supply gas to China. This means, according to local media, depriving some Uzbek households of supplies.
And it looks set to worsen. Uzbekistan currently supplies 10b cubic metres of gas a year. China wants to build another couple of pipelines to boost imports from Uzbekistan to about 25b cubic metres a year.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD raised its GDP growth outlook for Uzbekistan this year to 7.7% from 7.5%, media reported. Inflation, though, it said, would grow at 11% in 2013, one of the quickest rates in the region. Uzbekistan is cagey about releasing economic data.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Malaysia sentenced three Uzbeks, two women and one man, to death after convicting them of trying to smuggle drugs into the country. Officials caught the three Uzbeks, one a pensioner and the other two unemployed, carrying 10kg of methamphetamine in their luggage at Kuala Lumpur airport.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
