October 1, 2007
Politics:
President Islam Karimov visits Jizzakh and Syrdarya regions
Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan considers 2008 state budget
Economics:
Competence Centre to assist integration of e-government in Uzbekistan
Safe flight and safe landing – number one tasks
Margilan Mechanical Plant assembles Chinese mini-tractors
ICT Summit - powerful platform for ICT sphere development, says UNDP official
Society:
Forum discusses role of libraries in social life and upbringing of youth
POLITICS
PRESIDENT ISLAM KARIMOV VISITS JIZZAKH AND SYRDARYA REGIONS
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov visited Jizzakh and Syrdarya regions of the country on September 27, UzA reported.
During the visit, the head of the state met farmers in both regions, and discussed issues related to cotton growing.
About 5,000 farms of in Jizzakh region’s total 10,000 specialize in cotton growing. Last year, farms produced 98% of cotton in the region. This year’s target is producing more than 225,000 tons of raw cotton.
Islam Karimov said agricultural sector was developing successfully in Jizzakh. At the same time he named some shortcomings that had led to delayed cotton ripening this year.
The President said farmers should cooperate with scientists in developing new sorts of cotton meeting local conditions.
In the year 2008, he continued, the government planned to increase financing of the improvement of the lands’ meliorate condition from the state budget.
In Syrdarya region, Islam Karimov met farmers of three districts. Discussing the agricultural issues with the local residents, the President said the state should help farmers in solving the problems they cannot solve themselves.
CABINET OF MINISTERS OF UZBEKISTAN CONSIDERS 2008 STATE BUDGET
The Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan considered the macroeconomic forecast, the concept of tax and budget policy and the draft state budget for 2008 on September 26. Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev conducted the Cabinet session.
Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Rustam Azimov, Economy Minister Botir Khodjayev, State Tax Committee Chairman Botir Parpiyev, State Customs Committee Chairman Sodirkhon Nosirov, Commerce and Industry Chamber Chairman Alisher Shaykhov, Tashkent Mayor Abdukahhar Tukhtayev and others spoke at the session.
The Cabinet supported the proposals of the economy and finance ministries on macroeconomic forecast for 2008, which envisages keeping the real GDP growth at the minimum level of 8%, the growth of industrial sectors of 9.6%, the increase of the capital investments by 16% and the inflation level at 6-8% with the growth of the real incomes of the population.
Minister of Public Education Turobjon Jurayev and Health Minister Feruz Nazirov in their reports drew attention to rational and efficient use of budget funds in implementing state programs of personnel training, school education development, healthcare reform and social protection of the population.
During the discussions, concrete proposals were elaborated on the improvement of the tax and budget policy and 2008 budget parameters.
In particular, it was proposed to reduce the single tax for micro firms and small enterprises from 10% to 8% in order to create additional incentives for small business development and solving the employment problems.
It was also proposed to reduce excise tax for natural gas by 5% and income tax for commercial banks by 2%, as well as cancel the excise tax for consumer goods produced in Uzbekistan.
To meet the task of increasing the salaries and other payments 2.5 times during 2007-2009 set by President Islam Karimov, the supply of the 2008 budget envisages additional assignations for gradual increase of the salaries, pensions, stipends and allowances.
At the same time, it was suggested to bring the share of the supply for social sector and social protection of the population to 54%.
The Cabinet also considered issues of improvement of budget planning and financing educational institutions, providing state support to farms growing cotton at low-yield lands, and cardinal increase of financing for land-reclamation.
After the discussions, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the macroeconomic forecast, the concept of tax and budget policy and the draft of the 2008 state budget. They will now be considered by the Legislative Chamber.
The parameters of the state budget for 2008 will be announced after the approval by the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan.
ECONOMICS
COMPETENCE CENTRE TO ASSIST INTEGRATION OF E-GOVERNMENT IN UZBEKISTAN
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A presentation of the Centre of Competence for Electronic Management under the Association of IT Enterprises and Organisations of Uzbeksitan (IT Association) was held in Tashkent within the frame of the ICT Week taking place in Uzbekistan.
The Centre is intended to become a unique constantly functioning platform for demonstration of new hardware and software products in the field of electronic management.
In the interview with UzA, the Executive Director of the IT Association Ilkhom Abdullaev said that the international experience in the establishment of similar structures is quite rich. For instance, precedents are found in Malaysia, Russia, US, India, Estonia, and South Korea. Based on the advanced local and international experience, the competence centres serve as a source of knowledge in the field of electronic government, as complementary skills to raise the professional level of public sector officials, and thereby to improve the quality of the services provided, to increase public awareness about the advantages of electronic government, and its benefits for the development of the country's potential as a whole. Specialists working in such centres develop standards, recommendations and manuals with the aim of sharing the world best practices and some noteworthy local experience.
The Centre established within the structure of the IT Association will provide partner-companies the opportunity to promote its products and services in the field of electronic government on free of charge basis, as well as conduct scientific studies, research, and promote the dissemination of ideas of the development of information society.
The main task of the Competence Centre for E-Government is the development of a methodology for the integration of information systems and the implementation of the concept of common architecture of "electronic government", which envisages, in particular, the creation of the unified state resources, portals and information systems and assurance of their interaction. The implementation of the project is aimed at optimization of the activity of state agencies, simplification of interaction between the state and citizens and private sector, and provision for information openness and transparency of public sector agencies and efficient automated informational exchange.
The centre will provide an opportunity to unify the efforts of all those who are currently working on the development of the solutions for electronic government. It will position itself as a single marketing, consulting, scientific, and educational centre, which will be aimed at developing the e-government in Uzbekistan and will use its capacity to promote the solutions offered by the participants of the project.
A chain of solutions for electronic government is being developed, which responds to practically all needs of the modern market and all components complement each other and provide potential clients an opportunity to select and adapt ready solutions to local conditions.
The centre has set the objective to promote the idea of one common national information space and the integration of common standards, allowing not only the integration of different electronic business systems, but also to simplify the process of searching and choosing the appropriate solutions.
As first official partners of the centre, the following leading companies of the IT market have stepped forward: Baik Technologies, East Telecom, Micros, Sharifa-T, Unitech, Nuron Savdo, as well as world-famous Oracle, APC and Microsoft.
SAFE FLIGHT AND SAFE LANDING – NUMBER ONE TASKS
A seminar on the extension of the exploitation service period of the airfield paving, and aviation ornithology in the airports of Uzbekistan Airways was held at Termez international airport. The management of the airline company's airfield service participated in the seminar.
Airfield paving is an artificially created coating on the surface of the runways, driveways, aircraft parking lots, platforms and hangar front fields, intended to ensure uninterrupted year-long exploitation. In terms of the working conditions, two types may be identified: hard (structures made of sufficiently flexible materials, capable of spreading the load of the aircraft across a relatively large area, which is achieved through their flexibility) and limp (coatings, having relatively small resistance to bending, working mainly through compression and transferring the load of the aircraft to a relatively small area of the ground foundation).
Seminar participants carried out an analysis of the activity of their subdivisions, familiarized with the prospects of developing on-land maintenance of air harbors of the airline company and the experience of the airports of Tashkent, Termez, Urgench, Bukhara, Namangan, and Samarkand.
They also discussed the methods of assessing the current condition of the airfield paving, the types and reasons for deformations and damages of the airfield paving, and the ways to repair them. Close attention was given to the modern repair technologies, the use of the innovative materials and the means of mechanization. They also discussed the main and most commonly encountered types of damages and deformations of artificial airfield coatings, as well as the most important construction and repair technologies.
Experience sharing, discussions and constructive dialogues o the airline company's specialists are intended to ensure more efficient use of new technology in the operation of Uzbekistan Airways' subdivisions, and determine the prospects of their development.
MARGILAN MECHANICAL PLANT ASSEMBLES CHINESE MINI-TRACTORS
Margilon Mehanika Zavodi (Margilan Mechanical Plant) Joint-Stock Company has begun the assembly of agricultural technology using the component parts imported from China.
This was made possible thanks to cooperation with the companies Turumtav International and Bayhayhuamin (transliterated).
At this time the enterprise is assembling the component parts of the Mar-EM-60 minitractors and motor-mopeds supplied by Chinese partners.
The Chairman of the Board Ismoil Kamolov said the mini-tracts and moto-mopeds will be of reasonable price, universal in use and compact, UzA reported.
ICT SUMMIT - POWERFUL PLATFORM FOR ICT SPHERE DEVELOPMENT, SAYS UNDP OFFICIAL
ICT Summit in Uzbekistan has become a unique and powerful platform for all the key players to come together to share information and exchange experience, UNDP official in Uzbekistan said at the opening ceremony of the ICT Summit 2007.
The 5th anniversary ICT Summit 2007 opened in Tashkent on September 27. The event was organized by the Coordination Council for Development of Computerisation and ICT, he Committee on Information and Communication Technologies of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis, Uzbek Agency for Communication and Informatization (UzACI), United Nations Development Programme in Uzbekistan through ICT Policy Project (ICTP) and Association of IT Companies and Organizations of Uzbekistan.
The ICT Summit 2007 aims to encourage discussions on general and policy issues as well as on specific topics in the specific ICT areas. Topics for general discussion include trends and major developments in regulatory policy, progress and challenges in implementation of national ICT development programmes, experience of ICT applications in various sectors, development and application of standards, issues of infrastructure development and other important issues.
Kyoko Postill, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Uzbekistan, said at the opening ceremony of the summit: "Today, the Summit celebrates its fifth anniversary and it has become a unique, and powerful platform for all the key players to come together to share information, learn from each other, and discuss and identify measures to address issues that emerge from the wide-scale application and rapid development of ICTs."
In a world that has increasingly become interactive and inter-dependent, the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies are key for the countries to move successfully towards a knowledge based society that promotes sustainable growth, increases productivity, and enhances the quality of life, she said.
Ms Postill said UNDP will be further assisting the Government of Uzbekistan by bringing the best international practices and developing initiatives in ICT sphere, especially in promoting e-government, establishing foundations for creation of science and technology parks, and strengthening human resource capacity in ICT.
"We are confident that this summit will make a significant contribution to the ICT development in Uzbekistan, as well as strengthen efforts towards achieving goals and objectives set forth in the National ICT Programme and World Summits on the Information Society in Geneva and Tunis," she said.
SOCIETY
FORUM DISCUSSES ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN SOCIAL LIFE AND UPBRINGING OF YOUTH
The Uzbek National Library of Alisher Navoi hosted a roundtable meeting on the "Role of libraries in the life of the society, upbringing of youth and teaching the spiritual and moral values", UzA reported. The meeting was organized with the support of the Senate Committee for Science, Culture and Education.
Forum participants noted that pursuant to the Presidential Resolution of 20 June 2006 "On organization of information-resource support of the population of the republic", the libraries of the Ministry of Culture and Sport were granted to the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education (MHSSE), the MHSSE Centre of Secondary Specialised Professional Education, and the Ministry of Public Education.
In order to improve the performance of the library network in accordance with the modern requirements, aimed at satisfying the intellectual needs of the new generation, conservation of cultural, and moral values, and creation of the necessary conditions for a wider and more systematized informational support of the population, information-resource centres have been opened at higher and secondary specialized educational institutions and public schools.
To ensure the quality of the new level information-resource servicing of the population, and to develop cooperation between educational facilities, citizens' self-government bodies, and national cultural centres in the implementation of cultural, educational, information and other programmes and projects, an Interdepartmental Council for Coordination of the Activity of Information-Resource System of Uzbekistan has been set up.
Today, 1,187 information-resource centres function under higher, secondary specialized educational facilities, and public schools. They unite the total of 15,276 libraries with the total book fund of over 15 million copies of study, study-methodological, fiction, technical and reference books in Uzbek, Karakalpak, Russian and other languages. They are attended by some 13 million readers.
All libraries have completed the work on re-registration and examination of the book funds, in accordance with the modern requirements, staff attestation, computerization of the information resources and library centres. Systematic work is being carried out to create and develop the system of electronic libraries, to systematize libraries' information resources, and to prepare and train the necessary staff.
Meeting participants noted that as a result of the work being implemented, there is now the stage of transition from the traditional library servicing of readers to information-resource methods of creating universal information resource bases, provision of access to world scientific-educational and information resources, as well as formation of the fund of national and foreign printed, audio-visual, electronic and other publications.