MARCH 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a telephone conversation, Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Komilov and US secretary of state John Kerry discussed improving cooperation between the two countries, Uzbekistan’s government said. Strategically, Uzbekistan has become increasingly important ahead of NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)
MARCH 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Anvar Azimov, a senior Russian diplomat, suggested that Central Asian nationals will need visas to enter Russia from 2015, media reported. Mr Azimov’s comments caused a stir because the economies of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and, to a lesser extent, Uzbekistan are heavily reliant on remittances from workers in Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)
MARCH 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The value of Uzbekistan’s energy exports nearly doubled to $5b in 2012, the Eurasianet website reported quoting the Uzbek State Statistics Committee. Most of the increase was due to the opening of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China.
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(News report from Issue No. 126, published on March 8 2013)
FEB. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek hackers attacked the websites of various Kyrgyz government ministries and state-owned companies leaving the message “We’re against racism!”, media reported. Tension between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz has been growing in the south of the country since the beginning of the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)
FEB. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek hackers attacked the websites of various Kyrgyz government ministries and state-owned companies leaving the message “We’re against racism!”, media reported. Tension between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz has been growing in the south of the country since the beginning of the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)
FEB. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The UK will hand over military vehicles such as Land Rovers and trucks worth $700,000 to the Uzbek authorities in return for permission to extract its military equipment from Afghanistan across Uzbekistan in 2014, media reported. Rights groups have criticised deals with Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek authorities have unveiled a plan to build a 130km railway line over a mountain pass between Tashkent and their cities in the Ferghana Valley that will cut out the Soviet-built route through Tajikistan, media reported. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have an increasingly fractious relationship.
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(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The UK will hand over military vehicles such as Land Rovers and trucks worth $700,000 to the Uzbek authorities in return for permission to extract its military equipment from Afghanistan across Uzbekistan in 2014, media reported. Rights groups have criticised deals with Uzbekistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)
FEB. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Lars Nyberg, CEO of TeliaSonera, resigned after a report by a law firm concluded the Swedish telecoms giant had failed to do proper due diligence before buying an Uzbek 4G licence from a Gibraltar-registered firm in 2007. Media reports have since linked the Gibraltar firm to the eldest daughter of the Uzbek president.
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(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
FEB. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – On Feb. 1, Uzbekistan banned buying foreign currencies with cash. Officially, the ban was imposed to stamp out Uzbekistan’s burgeoning black market. Unofficially it appears to be another form of control over ordinary people.
A black market for US dollars in Uzbekistan has been vibrant for years because of heavy currency controls imposed by the government. These controls made it far cheaper to buy US dollars under the counter at the back of a carpet shop than it did in a bank.
But reports from Tashkent already suggest that strategy of banning currency transactions in cash to quash the black market, if this was the real aim, may have backfired. Despite the crackdown US dollars are still being traded. According to Eurasianet, the effect of the currency restrictions was to limit supply of US dollars and push prices up by roughly 40%.
The restrictions on US dollars may also effect wider sales. US dollars are often used in Uzbekistan to buy cars or houses as using sum, the local currency, in a large cash purchase is practically impossible because of the piles of notes needed.
Uzbek officials will point out that if you have a bank account you can, electronically, still buy US dollars. The worth of this, in a cash based economy, is, though, highly questionable.
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(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
