Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Head of Uzbek Central Bank dies

MAY 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The head of Uzbekistan’s Central Bank, Fayzulla Mullajanov died aged 67 from complications linked to kidney disease, media reported. Mullajanov had been head of the Central Bank for 14 years and retained his position when Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president after Islam Karimov died in September 2016. In reality, the Uzbek Central Bank has little independence from central government.

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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)

French car makers sign deal with Uzbekistan

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MAY 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — French car producer PSA, the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, signed a deal with Uzbekistan’s state-owned Uzavtosanoat to set up a factory in the Free Industrial Zone of Jizzakh, media reported. The plan is to produce light commercial vehicles for the Uzbek and wider Central Asia markets. For Uzbekistan, attracting investment from PSA is a major success. It already operates a JV with the US’ GM. The car market, though, has slumped over the last few years as the economies in Central Asia and Russia, a major market, have dipped.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

Uzbek President travels to meet Berdy, again

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MAY 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev travelled to Turkmenistan for the second time in 10 weeks, an indication of just how important he regards bilateral relations. Mr Mirziyoyev’s interest in Turkmenistan lies in stark contrast to his predecessor, Islam Karimov, who preferred an isolationist stance. Mr Mirziyoyev’s first overseas trip as president was made to Ashgabat in March.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

UN rights chief praises Uzbekistan

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MAY 10/11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, finished a tour of Uzbekistan by saying that in general he was confident that the country, often derided as one of the worst in the world for human rights, had started to mend its ways.

Mr Zeid’s visit was the first by a UN Human Rights Commissioner to Uzbekistan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It has been viewed as a turning point in Uzbek relations with international institutions and a major PR victory for Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev who has been looking to woo global institutions.

In a statement at the end of his two night trip to Uzbekistan, Mr Zeid said that he had been impressed by the new Uzbek administration’s endeavor setting up a series of units to improve human rights.

“Uzbekistan is, in my view, at a crossroads. The volume of constructive human rights related proposals, plans and new legislation that has emerged since President Mirziyoyev took up the office is remarkable,” he said.

“It is going to be a long and difficult road to get near that point [improved human rights], with obstructions and setbacks, but I do believe the journey has begun.”

The New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement afterwards saying that Uzbekistan’s rhetoric now needed to be turned into action.

Mr Mirziyoyev, inviting Mr Zeid to tour Uzbekistan was a risk. In the end, though, he appears to have impressed Mr Zeid. He wants to improve Uzbekistan’s image to give it access to finance, which is increasingly linked to human rights, and gain more acceptance.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek leaders fly to Beijing

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MAY 11-14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A slew of Central Asian officials flew to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping for bilateral talks and also regional development. Visitors included Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, on his first visit to China since becoming Uzbek leader in September last year. China has become an important driver of economic development in the region with its ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy that envisions Central Asia as a stagepost for Asia-Europe trade. The Central Asian leaders returned home with billions of dollars worth of deals.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

IDB to fund Uzbek SMEs

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MAY 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A unit of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) signed deals to boost financing of small and medium-sized businesses in Uzbekistan with two Tashkent-based banks, Ipak Yuli and Asia Alli- ance. The deals continue the sense of openness and development that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ushered into Uzbekistan since taking over as president in September 2016. Earlier this year, he welcomed the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) back to Tashkent for the first time since 2003. This month the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited Uzbekistan for the first time.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

Ice cream poisons 100s in Uzbekistan

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MAY 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Several hundred people were poisoned after eating ice cream in the Shahrian district of Andijan, in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley, media reported. Hospitals said that they admitted 182 people into intensive care for poisoning. There have been, so far, no reports of any deaths.

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(News report from Issue No. 329, published on May 20 2017)

Uzbekistan wooes EBRD

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MAY 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) AGM in Cyprus, Uzbek representative Sodiq Safoyev, a deputy speaker of Uzbekistan’s Senate, asked for the bank to speed up cooperation. The EBRD has promised to engage more with Uzbekistan now that Islam Karimov has died. New Uzbek president has tried to mend broken relations with Uzbekistan’s neighbours and partners, including the EBRD. The EBRD withdrew funding for projects in Uzbekistan in the mid- 2000s after a row over human rights.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Uzbek tourists pilgrimage Karimov’s grave

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SAMARKAND/Uzbekistan, MAY 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a warm spring day, queues snake down the steps along the hillside of Samarkand’s Hazrat Khizr Mosque. The line is made up of men, women and children, some whole families. They are waiting to pay their respects to the late President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, who died on Sept. 2 2016.

Born in Samarkand, he is now buried here too and his final surroundings are certainly grand, and holy. The Hazrat Khizr Mosque, considered by many to be Samarkand’s most beautiful mosque, lies next to the famous necropolis, Shah-i-Zinda, a major tourist attraction and an important Islamic holy site.

Policemen stagger the crowds, letting a few up at a time. Any day soon the site will be closed as a more permanent mausoleum is built, and many are eager to come now, while they can.

One man, from Jizzakh, a two- hour drive away, had rushed to get here with his whole family in tow. “We know it’ll close so we wanted to come now. We don’t know how long the building work will last for,” he says.

He then adds: “We feel anxious about the future now the President is gone.”

Another man, an elder, or aksakal (white beard), wearing a long chapan (cloak) a red neck scarf, says that he met Karimov several times and had traveled from a village 150km away to come here. He’d also visited the Shah-i-Zinda that morning, and was heading to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque across the road afterwards.

Karimov’s grave is becoming part of the tourism circuit.

At the top, a mullah, sitting in a glass policeman’s box, reads out prayers through loud speakers. Looking crestfallen, most kneel and sit to pray while policemen look on unsmilingly, and bored. Slowly, the circle continues with more arriving and leaving, a continual cycle of muted grief and uncertainty about the future.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Uzbek president restores V-Day parade

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MAY 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan restored Victory Day celebrations in a nod to improving ties with Russia. The celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 is one of the biggest holidays in Russia but under former President Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan had downgraded the event to a simple wreath laying ceremony. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president since September last year, is trying to boost relations with Russia and move away from his predecessor’s isolationist stance. He has been to Moscow to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pointedly, this year he attended a theatrical performance that included Soviet- era vehicles, songs and performers dressed as soldiers.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)