24 April, 2006

Politics
Tashkent prepares to visit of Indian Prime Minister
Indian ambassador says ties with Uzbekistan have great future
Russia to process spent nuclear fuel, return it to Uzbekistan

Economics
Round-table discusses new draft Tax Code
EurAsEC experts develop requirements specification for fuel-energy strategy
Uzbekistan Banking Association joins International Banking Council

Society
Over 80,000 believers celebrate Orthodox Easter in Uzbekistan
Russia to remove quotas for Uzbek students
Art management in Uzbekistan discussed
Uzbekistan beats New Zealand to keep place in Fed Cup

POLITICS

TASHKENT PREPARES TO VISIT OF INDIAN PRIME MINISTER

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will pay official visit to Uzbekistan on 25-26 April on invitation of the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Skand Ranjan Tayal said in press-conference on Friday that Indian Prime Minister will be accompanied by his spouse and delegation including over 43 people.

Indian envoy said within the visit, leaders of two states will hold negotiations and discuss actual issues on information technologies, textile and silk industry, as well as regional international affairs.

It is planned opening ceremony of Indian-Uzbek Centre on information technologies named after Neru, created in Tashkent Information Technologies University. The Indian official will visit Shastri monuments, former Indian leader.

Currently, India and Uzbekistan signed over 50 agreements and memorandums. The sides will discuss review of implementation of these agreements and consider concrete measures on enforcement of targets.

INDIAN AMBASSADOR SAYS TIES WITH UZBEKISTAN HAVE GREAT FUTURE

Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Skand Ranjan Tayal said that the relations between Uzbekistan and India have great future.

"We have a task of adding great economic and commercial content to the established level of political relations. India and Uzbekistan know what terrorism is not by hearsay. We have established a joint working group to fight terrorism, which has been conducting a very important and necessary task," envoy said.

Speaking about state of and prospects for Uzbek-Indian economic cooperation, Tayal said it has been actively developing each year. "However it has not reached the desired level yet. The leaders of both countries called for vigorous efforts to expand trade and investment cooperation."

Indian ambassador said: "An important mechanism in achieving this is the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, the sixth session of which was held at the beginning of March this year. Very important decisions were made on studying the possibilities of cooperation in new areas."

The commission decided to create an oil-and-gas industry joint working group to study possibilities of cooperation between Gas Authority of India Limited, the committee on oil and natural gas and Uzbekneftgas national oil company, he said.

"A session of a joint working committee for supporting small and private entrepreneurship has been held in Delhi. It is expected that a specific program in this sphere will be worked out very soon. Another important sphere that India and Uzbekistan decided to cooperate in is geology and mining. Your country is reach in mineral resources and our companies can help Uzbek partners to extract and sell these resources on a mutually beneficial basis."

Negotiations on creating joint ventures in the textile and silk industries and pharmaceutics are under way between our companies. It is also necessary to expand relations in technology exchange and training staff in spheres such as science, technology, agriculture and information technologies, he said.

Important documents aimed at expanding bilateral cooperation are being discussed now. "We hope that the forthcoming meeting of the leaders of the two countries in Tashkent will accelerate the process of signing these documents," Tayal added.

RUSSIA TO PROCESS SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL, RETURN IT TO UZBEKISTAN

Russia has completed the removal of spent nuclear fuel from Uzbekistan for processing at its nuclear facilities, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency said on 21 April.

"Under a Russian-American intergovernmental agreement, which obliges Russia to process its nuclear fuel from research reactors in other countries, the waste after processing the Uzbek nuclear fuel in Russia will be returned back to Uzbekistan," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power.

Russia started to transport spent nuclear fuel from Uzbekistan in January this year and completed the last delivery on 19 April, Novikov said.

Under the Russian-American agreement, signed on 27 May 2004, Russia has already delivered spent nuclear fuel from Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Libya.

ECONOMICS

ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSES NEW DRAFT TAX CODE

Major changes envisioned in a new draft Tax Code were presented at the round table held in the World Bank country office on 21 April 2006.

The round table brought together the government, several projects involved in reforming tax system, World Bank and IFC PEP staff. Martin Raiser, World Bank country Manager and Fikret Acura, UNDP Resident Representative for Uzbekistan took part in the event.

New Revision of Tax Code was presented by the head of Tax Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance. The draft includes the principles of tax legislation and taxation system in conformity with international standards. It facilitates and enhances the incentive mechanism of taxation. The presentation was followed by a great number of questions asked by the World Bank and IFC staff.

In addition, presentations were made on Tax and Customs Administration Reform and Econometric modeling component for tax system reform.

The round table has become an important event for expanding a dialogue on reforming tax system and tax administration. The event shows that the government is ready for such kind of a dialogue.

The staff of the Ministry of Finance not only answered the questions and discussed the problems, they raised the problems themselves and outlined the priorities for technical assistance and involvement of international advice.

EURASEC EXPERTS DEVELOP REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION FOR FUEL-ENERGY STRATEGY

Experts of Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) developed requirements specification for development of strategy in fuel-energy complex of all member-states on Friday, 21 April.

Anatoliy Yanovskiy, head of fuel-energy complex department of Russia's Industry and Energy Ministry, said the session of experts was held constructively and the sides developed requirements specification for strategy in fuel-energy complex, which will create ground for long-term cooperation.

He said that it meets one of directions, offered by Russia within chairmanship in G8, to ensure global energy security and necessity to considerate efforts of producers and consumers on harmonization of energy strategies.

Yanovskiy noted that representative of Uzbekistan participated in the meeting for the first time.

Eurasian Economic Community unites Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

UZBEKISTAN BANKING ASSOCIATION JOINS INTERNATIONAL BANKING COUNCIL

Uzbekistan Banking Association joined the International Coordination Council of Banking Association of CIS, Central and Eastern Europe (International Banking Council) on Friday, 21 April.

International Banking Council held its session at Budapest, Hungary. The session exchanges experience on work of credit bureaus in Central and Eastern Europe.

The council founded on 3 September 2004 and it unites Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Ukraine, Central and Eastern European states, Russian Association of Regional Banks.

SOCIETY

OVER 80,000 BELIEVERS CELEBRATE ORTHODOX EASTER IN UZBEKISTAN

Over 80,000 Orthodox believers celebrated Easter in Uzbekistan, a predominantly Muslim country, on Sunday, 23 April.

Easter services were ministered in more than 30 Orthodox parishes of the republic.

The Christian holiday was marked with a number of charity actions. Charity homes and 162 poor families received aid in the Andizhan region.

Christianity in Central Asia was adopted much earlier than in Russia, Metropolitan of Tashkent and Central Asia Vladimir (Yakim) said on Saturday. It is believed that Apostle Thomas brought Christianity to Central Asia.

RUSSIA TO REMOVE QUOTAS FOR UZBEK STUDENTS

Starting from the new academic year, Russia removes quotas that limit the admittance of entrants from Uzbekistan to Russian higher educational institutions, Alexander Kazenov, deputy head of the Russian federal agency for education, said at the closing ceremony of the first CIS exhibition-presentation of Russian higher education in Tashkent.

More than 6,000 students from Uzbekistan are studying in Russia, Kazenov said. "But this number can and should grow by several times. We are ready to satisfy any wishes of our Uzbek colleagues for training of specialists Uzbekistan needs in different specialties," he told to Itar-Tass.

"From now on Russian diplomas will be recognized in Uzbekistan, and Uzbek ones - in Russia," the rector of the Southern-Russian State University of Economics and Services, Anatoliy Sapronov said.

ART MANAGEMENT IN UZBEKISTAN DISCUSSED

A scientific workshop on the "Urgent issues of art management in Uzbekistan" was held on 20 April at the Gallery of Fine Art of Uzbekistan.

In the course of the meeting, organised by the Arts Academy of Uzbekistan for the principles of collages and lyceums included in its structure, teachers, post-graduates and masters' graduates of the National Institute of Art and Design named after Behzod made their reports, including the report on "Museum Management" of Kamol Nishanov, "Scientific researches in the field of culture" of Dilnoza Alimkulova, "Sponsorship in culture" of Kul Tashev.

The concept of art management has been around for quite a while, but unfortunately, few know what it really means. Many confuse the concepts of art management and marketing, thinking that the first is aimed at the promotion of the art pieces. Meanwhile, "this is absolutely not true," said the chief scientist secretary of the Arts Academy, Doctor of Art Studies Kamol Akilov. "First of all," he said "it is the study of possibilities in the society to fully develop different areas of art and culture and the search of ways to realise them. From this emerges the need to adopt the old mentality of the managers to the new market conditions, because many of them are used to the assistance of the government in such issues, and the government's resources are not unlimited. That is why there emerged an urgent need to conduct a seminar on the topic." Workshop participants discussed the issues of sponsorship and fundraising. The latter is oriented at raising additional funds to implement cultural programmes and projects. From this derived the objective of the seminar to create conditions for the dialogue on their solution.

Among the priority tasks was named the development and publication of new textbooks, expansion of students' and teaching staff's vision, and organisation of trainings. This is especially important because educational facilities of the Arts Academy are located in such famous centers of cultural heritage and tourism as Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, Shahrisabz and other historical cities.

This is the first workshop organised in the system of the Arts Academy that lays the foundation for the directors of educational subdivision to work on cultural projects. For this, it is important to activate contacts of the educational facilities with the khokimiats (government subdivisions), which are capable of assisting their implementation. In solving these tasks, foreign funds and sponsors could provide substantial assistance. It is important to change the psychology of the management, reorient its policies to suit the conditions set by the market economy in search for potential partners among businessmen, many of whom could earn the prestigious status of sponsors (patrons of art), because the problem of the development of national culture and art should not be left unattended by the people who have a certain financial potential. The mechanism of finding sponsors has to be developed and implemented in practice. Taking into account the fact that this year has been announced by the Uzbekistan's administrations as the Year of Charity and Medical Workers, also stresses the urgency of the issue.

SPORT

UZBEKISTAN BEATS NEW ZEALAND TO KEEP PLACE IN FED CUP

New Zealand has lost its Fed Cup women's tennis match against Uzbekistan 2-1 in Seoul and has been relegated to the Asia/Oceania Zone Group II.

In a tough encounter Leanne Baker was defeated by former top-20 player Iroda Tulyaganova 6-3 7-5.

Marina Erakovic then evened up the score with a good victory over the tall and powerful Akgul Amanmuradova who is ranked at 170. Erakovic won the match 7-5 6-1.

In the vital doubles Erakovic and Baker were beaten 6-4 7-5 by Amanmuradova and Tulyaganova.

Results: Iroda Tulyaganova bt Leanne Baker 6-3 7-5; Marina Erakovic bt Akgul Amanmuradova(UZB)7-5 6-1 Amanmuradova/Tulyaganova bt Baker/Erakovic 6-4 7-5.