Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Android tablet production starts up in Uzbekistan

JUNE 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — For Western companies, Uzbekistan’s image as a place to do business is at a low ebb. The rule of law in Uzbekistan is considered weak and corruption widespread. India and China, though, have been celebrating some recent successes.

China has been grabbing headlines with large-scale initiatives often thrashed out at government level but Indian companies have also, often more quietly, been making headway.

One of the more eye-catching announcements was that a joint-venture between OliveTelecom, an Indian mobile technology manufacturer, and UzTelecom had started production of its Android tablet near the city of Navoi in central Uzbekistan.

A factory in one of the Uzbek government’s economic free zones, a low tax area for foreign investors, is making the OlivePadV-T300 Tablet PC. The tablet will be sold within Uzbekistan only and retail at 350,000 som (roughly $160).

Production of the OliveTelecom tablet shows that foreign investors can, potentially, operate in Uzbekistan and also that the Uzbek labour market is capable of producing hi-tech gadgets.

Neighbouring Kazakhstan has long said it wants to diversify its economic base away from heavy industry and the energy sector. It can now look to Uzbekistan for advice.

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(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)

Uzbek and Kazakh presidents meet

JUNE 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called for the UN to investigate the potential environmental impact of proposed dams in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Water is a sensitive subject in Central Asia and can aggravate inter-country relations.

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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)

HRW warns of deportations to Kyrgyzstan

JUNE 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) said three Uzbek men Kyrgyzstan wanted extradited from Russia may be tortured if they are handed over to the Kyrgyz authorities. The Kyrgyz authorities want to question the men over their roles in ethnic fighting in the south of the country in June 2010.

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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)

UK minister visits Uzbekistan

JUNE 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In another sign of Uzbekistan’s growing acceptance by the West, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a British government minister, visited Tashkent for talks. The West had previously shunned Uzbekistan for human rights abuses but they have now smoothed over relations as they need help Uzbek support to withdraw military equipment from Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)

Domestic oil consumption grows in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan

JUNE 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The figures in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy can be dry but the stories behind the figures are important.

The 2013 edition is an important barometer for the energy-centric economies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. The most telling figure for the region in this year’s edition of the review was that oil consumption in Kazakhstan grew by over 10% in 2012.

This is a large jump. In the countries covered in the review only Israel’s oil consumption increased at a higher rate. The global rise in oil consumption in 2012 was 0.9%.

The increase reflects Kazakhstan’s emergence from a sharp economic retraction triggered by the global crisis of 2008/9 when oil consumption fell.

Last year Kazakhstan, with a population of 17m, consumed 265,000 barrels of oil per day. By comparison, Uzbekistan, population 29.5m, consumed 82,000 barrels/day and Turkmenistan, population 5m, consumed 100,000 barrels/day.

Across the Caspian Sea, BP reported that Azerbaijan, population 9.3m, consumed 93,000 barrels of oil per day, a jump of 5.4%. This rise in Azerbaijan’s oil consumption, although not as big as Kazakhstan’s leap, still shows an increase in economic activity.

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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)

Dollars fuel Uzbekistan’s black market

TASHKENT/Uzbekistan, JUNE 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The black market currency traders in Taskhent’s bazaars are hardly inconspicuous.

“Dollars, dollars. Russian roubles,” they say.

Huge wads of cash change hands as people exchange dollars for Uzbek sums. The black market currency trade in Uzbekistan is big business and well established.

With the largest note worth a mere 1,000 sum (roughly 50 cents), the piles of money can be hefty. The trade is visible, but the police in Tashkent’s bazaars don’t step in; they’re taking a cut.

This currency black market has traditionally offered better rates than the banks. Exchanging $1,000 legally will give you about 2 billion sum, while on the black market you’ll receive around 2.7 billion sum.

Since February, the Uzbek government has banned people from buying cash dollars legally at all. Those needing hard currency must deposit money on debit cards which they can only use abroad.

When this ban on buying dollars came into force it sparked wild black market rate fluctuations and speculation that the government was out to smash this lucrative illegal trade. Such talk was short-lived, however, and the shadowy forces controlling the black market made a fortune on the exchange rate fluctuations.

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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)

MTS sells its assets in Uzbekistan

JUNE 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek government announced that Russian mobile operator MTS was selling its assets in Uzbekistan for roughly $300m, media reported. Last year the Uzbek government accused MTS’s local subsidiary Uzdunrobita of tax dodging and suspended its operations. MTS said the allegations were false.

(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)

IDB grants $270m to Uzbekistan

MAY 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) agreed to give Uzbekistan a $270m grant to buy two new Boeing airplanes for its national airline and to modernise its hydro-electric stations. The IDB, a multinational institution, has been one of Uzbekistan’s biggest donors in recent years.

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

NATO opens an office in Uzbekistan

MAY 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Over the past couple of years, NATO has slowly been building relations with Uzbekistan. The Western military alliance needs Uzbekistan’s help to pull kit and equipment out of neighbouring Afghanistan.

Deals have been made ahead of the military pull-out, scheduled for 2013 and 2014, and promises of friendships pledged.

Now NATO plans to open an office in Tashkent, media reported. NATO said the move was planned as part of a rotational policy and the office was simply moving from Astana to Tashkent. Maybe, but the timing is also good for NATO. They have to coordinate pulling out hundreds of military vehicles across Uzbekistan to Russia over the next couple of years. They also have to work out what kit to leave behind in Uzbekistan.

Dealing with Uzbekistan is tricky. It was only a few years ago, when the West didnít need its support for their war in Afghanistan, that Uzbekistan was considered a pariah state with a distasteful human rights record.

Eurasianet quoted a NATO spokesperson as saying that the office in Tashkent would open up in either June or July and that it would have diplomatic status.

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

TeliaSonera under investigation over Uzbek corruption

MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish TV aired fresh documents appearing to show more evidence that telecoms giant TeliaSonera paid Gulnara Karimova, the all-powerful eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, to win a 3G licence in Uzbekistan. TeliaSonera is the subject of a Swedish investigation into corruption allegations.

(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)