22 May, 2006

Politics
Uzbek leader visited Bahauddin Nakshband memorial complex in Bukhara
President Karimov met farmers in Bukhara
Uzbekistan's accession to CSTO not considered now - secretary general
Uzbekistan printing house puts out book on today's Andijan
Georgia for stirring up economic cooperation with Uzbekistan - envoy

Economics
CIS communication officials meet in Tashkent
Tashkent conference to discuss e-signature use
Finnish business delegation to visit Uzbekistan in June
LG Electronics presents new product – LG Chocolate mobile phone
Softline, IBM presents software to increase business efficiency
Trade mission of Tomsk region to visit Uzbekistan

Society
First National Conference on cervical cancer prevention opens
Forum of women’s organizations of Uzbekistan held
International conference focuses on biodiversity in Aral Sea area
Sixteen Asian Futsal Teams Head to Tashkent

POLITICS

UZBEK LEADER VISITED BAHAUDDIN NAKSHBAND MEMORIAL COMPLEX IN BUKHARA

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov visited Bukhara region on 18-19 May, 2006. On the second day of his visit, the Uzbek leader visited the memorial complex of Bahauddin Nakshband.

In the years of independence, large-scale work has been carried out in the sphere spirituality, enlightenment and education. Serious attention is paid to perpetuation of the memory of great ancestors, preservation and wide propaganda of their heritage.

Scientists are studying the heritage of Hadj Bahauddin Nakshband, an outstanding thinker, famous representative of Sufism, his invaluable contribution to the world intellectual treasury, as well as the effective application of this spiritual wealth in deed of upbringing young generation.

Jubilees of Imam Buhari, Hadj Abduhalik Gijduvani, Abu Mansur Maturidi, Burhonuddin Marginoniy were celebrated widely on the initiative of the Uzbek President. Centre of Memorial Complex of Bahauddin Nakshband was created in 2004 on the basis of the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan.

Viewing the complex, the Uzbek head appreciated the constructive work carried out in Bukhara for the years of independence, and noted the necessity of increasing orchards, looking after parks and flower gardens.

PRESIDENT ISLAM KARIMOV MET FARMERS IN BUKHARA

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov completed his visit to Navoi and Bukhara regions on 19 May.

During the trip the Uzbek head paid special attention to the course of agricultural reforms, in particular, the work on further development of farm movement.

On the territory of Yangi Hayot (New Life) farm of Bukhara region, President Karimov talked with heads and members of farms, familiarized with conditions and available capacities for them.

During the conversation Islam Karimov noted the necessity of further activating the work of enterprises engaged in servicing of farms, mini banks, improving the work on supply of farms with mineral fertilizers, lubricating materials and agricultural machinery.

UZBEKISTAN'S ACCESSION TO CSTO NOT CONSIDERED NOW - SECRETARY GENERAL

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has not considered Uzbekistan's accession to this organization, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha has said.

"But if this country, as well as any other, decides to join the CSTO, we will certainly set some terms and conditions for it, primarily to make it sign the basic agreements and treaties, and Tashkent would have to accept the rules of the game existing in the organization," Bordyuzha said in an interview published in the Saturday issue of Moskovskiye Novosti (Moscow News). Speaking about his recent meeting with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Bordyuzha said they had come to an agreement on cooperation between Tashkent and the CSTO regarding drug trafficking from Afghanistan and "political extremism."

"If this cooperation satisfies both the CSTO and Uzbekistan, Tashkent will probably make the decision on its further involvement in CSTO events. If is for Uzbekistan to decide whether it will do it as a full member, an observer, or a partner in specific projects," he said.

UZBEKISTAN PRINTING HOUSE PUTS OUT BOOK ON TODAY'S ANDIJAN

The printing house "Uzbekistan" put out the book, namely "Today's Andijan", decorated with colored photos and in three languages: Uzbek, Russian and English. The book is dedicated to the today's life and steady reforms, which are now being undertaken in Andijan Province of Uzbekistan.

It came out as an edition also devoted for the anniversary of Andijan events of May 12-13, 2005, during which the several administrative facilities in the town came under terrorist attacks o¬n the part of group of bandits and criminals.

It is no secret that some external centers with their geopolitical interests operating in and around the Central Asia began to have an evil o¬n Uzbekistan, the country with a key strategic location in the region.

Thus, last year in May those forces attempted to carry out the terrorist attacks in Andijan, raise panic among the local populace and lead astray the state of affairs in the country, which cost the lives of tens of human lives in the area.

However, the people of Andijan did not stop their work and aspirations towards new goals, but they have continued o¬n their usual businesses as a struggle against the terror, the book noted.

And today's Andijan has been reconstructed anew and became more beautiful than it has been before. Certainly, all of that became possible with immediate support by Uzbekistan government, as well as assistance and participation of local population.

In this context, o¬ne of the current goals of Uzbekistan is to save and maintain the peace, stability and unity of people in the country and provide the safety for the population. Therefore the people of Andijan are working hand in hand to achieve the profound goals set before the country and address all kinds of issues the Uzbek society now deals with, according to the book.

The book also describes enormous transformations and changes to have taken place for over the last years in various spheres in social-economic life, and particularly, in industry and agriculture province-wide in Andijan. Thus, the authors of the book attempted to draw a real picture of today's stable and constantly changing lives of the locals here in o¬ne of the most beautiful destinations not o¬nly in Uzbekistan, but also throughout the entire Central Asian region.

GEORGIA FOR STIRRING UP ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH UZBEKISTAN - ENVOY

Georgia is for stirring up economic cooperation with Uzbekistan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to Uzbekistan David Zalkaliani said in interview.

Speaking about projects on reviving Great Silk Road, Georgian envoy said Georgia, as part of regional project, always was for diversification of trade-economic relations and transport routes.

David Zalkaliani said it is important launch of oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan and construction of gas pipeline, which will connect Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

All these, in their turn, will promote realization of TRACECA project, in which many Asian and European states are interested. The project connected with revival of the Great Silk Road based on modernization of existing and construction of new roads. In these issues, it is difficult to value role of Uzbekistan.

Speaking on Uzbek-Georgian relations, Zalkaliani said trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Georgia made up US$10 million in 2005. [According to Uzbek State Statistics Committee, trade turnover of Uzbekistan and Georgia was US$9.2 million in 2005, of which US$4.7 million fell to share of Uzbek exports.]

Georgia mainly exports to Uzbekistan chemical products, ferrous metals and machinery equipment, as well as goods, he said. The envoy noted that Georgia imports to Uzbekistan energy resources, non-ferrous metals and other products.

Ambassador said the economic relations between countries can be stirred up and trade turnover between two countries can be expanded via use of transport corridors, which pass through Georgia.

He said Georgia welcomes participation of Uzbek businesses and investors in the Georgian market. Georgian envoy said the country informs Uzbek side on objects, which were put for privatization and the Uzbek businesses can participate in these processes.

David Zalkaliani said Georgia was always for stirring up economic cooperation with Uzbekistan, taking into account its great importance with its economic and cultural resources in Central Asian region.

Ambassador said Georgian embassy is planning to hold Days of Georgian Films in the mid- June 2006, as well as photo exhibition. He hoped that these events will be interesting for Uzbek public.

ECONOMICS

CIS COMMUNICATION OFFICIALS MEET IN TASHKENT

The 35th session of Board of Governors of the Regional Communications Commonwealth (RCC) opened in Tashkent on 22 May.

The ninth session of RCC Coordination Board on Informatization is also taking place in the Uzbek capital along with the RCC session.

Regional Communications Commonwealth (RCC) was established on 17 December 1991. Its establishment is connected with the beginning of new political and economic life of independent states founded in post soviet time.

RCC session will discuss results of implementation of agreements, reached by RCC members in the second stage of World Summit on the Information Society (Tunis, 16-18 November 2005) and World Electronic Communication Conference (Qatar, 7-15 March 2006).

The session will consider issues on preparation to international conferences on communication, use of information-communication technologies in post services and others. It is expected that the Russian Information Technologies and Communication Ministry and Uzbek Agency for Communication and Information will sign agreement on cooperation in information technologies, post communication and telecommunication.

The coordination council will discus issues on realization of interstate programme on creation of information-marketing centers' network, development of interstate recommendations on standardization in ICT in CIS, formation and use of state information resources, development of IT sector and others.

TASHKENT CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS E-SIGNATURE USE

Tashkent will host international scientific-practical conference "Actual problems of Electronic Digital Signature Use" on 24-25 May.

Uzbek Agency for Communication and Information and Federal Agency on Information Technologies of Russia are organizers of the event.

The conference will consider current state and problems on creation of infrastructure of key registration centers of Electronic Digital Signature, technical problems of their functioning and legal problems in use of Electronic Digital Signature.

Specialists from Uzbekistan, Russia and other countries will participate in the work of the conference.

FINNISH BUSINESS DELEGATION TO VISIT UZBEKISTAN IN JUNE

A delegation of business circles of Finland led by Ambassador of Finland to Uzbekistan Maria Liysa Kilyunen will visit Uzbekistan on 5-8 June.

The delegation includes representatives of Finnish companies, operating in various sectors of economy, including oil and gas, chemical, metallurgy and others.

It is planned to organize business forum with participation of Finnish and Uzbek companies, presentation of Finnish companies and bilateral talks among Uzbek and Finnish businesses.

The negotiations will take place at InterContinental Hotel on 6-7 June.

LG ELECTRONICS PRESENTS NEW PRODUCT – LG CHOCOLATE MOBILE PHONE

Representative office of LG Electronic Inc. in Uzbekistan held press conference on 19 May, which was devoted to launch of a new product – the LG Chocolate phone.

LG Electronics, the world leader in mobile communications technology, has announced that the LG Chocolate – also known as the KG800 – will appear in the Uzbek market on 25 May 2006.

Organisers believe that the phone will certainly be an obligatory phone for those who value style coupled with functions. Made in the spirit of minimalism, LG Chocolate has received general all-round approval for its slim, black, sliding design complemented by extremely slick, glowing red buttons. It turns out that the red buttons on the front aren't buttons at all but in fact a touch-keypad section which lights up when you slide it open.

It boasts a generally pretty standard set of features: a 2", 256k colour display, 1.3 megapixel camera and 128MB memory. The pleasant surprises come in the form of its smaller than expected dimensions (9.5 x 4.8 x 1.5cm) and particularly light weight (83g). Kim Djong Kvan, Head of LG Electronics Inc. office in Uzbekistan, said that LG Chocolate was initially produced in November 2005 in Korea, where LG has sold over 400,000 units. The phone has won two European awards for design – premiums iF Design Award and Red Design Award – for its unique style and user interface. "I believe that LG Chocolate will be accepted by the Uzbek market and hope for success," he noted.

The popularity of this phone among celebrities and outstanding figures made so that it pretends to occupy 7% of the entire Korean mobile phones market, which is the most competitive market of mobile communications worldwide.

"With LG, we believe that technology is nothing without design," said Ilkhom Yahyaev, Mobile Phone Sales Manager of LG Electronic Inc. office in Uzbekistan. "We try to make our products delightful and with our Black Label series we have advanced in respect of style and technological innovation. Being the first ever phone with sensor panel, LG Chocolate has eliminated the stereotypes of how should a phone look not losing its functionality".

The new LG Chocolate phone will be intended for the Uzbekistan and will differ from the one manufactured in Korea.

LG Electronics Inc. is the leader in the field of electronic and mobile communication items production. The company employs more than 72,000 people in its 77 subsidiaries and marketing centres. LG Electronics is a large producer of CDMA handsets, air-conditioners, optical storage devices and home cinemas. The company's gross revenues make up over US$35 billion.

SOFTLINE, IBM PRESENTS SOFTWARE TO INCREASE BUSINESS EFFICIENCY

Softline International Uzbekistan in cooperation with IBM and at support of the Uzbek Agency for Communication and Information organized a seminar dedicated to effectiveness of collective work and increase productivity of businesses with assistance of IBM solutions.

Over 80 representatives of Uzbek companies participated in the work of the seminar entitled "Increase efficiency of work of organizations and improvement of interaction of staff in collective".

The seminar presented solutions on increasing efficiency of collective work, improvement of external and internal interaction of staff in organization, creation of e-document turnover system and others based on IBM Lotus.

The organizers said that IBM Lotus directs efforts mainly on human factor in businesses and offers flexible and reliable software solutions, which allow people to cooperate, study and use of collective knowledge.

IBM Lotus helps organizations and community to respond to business problems and gives opportunity to use experience and knowledge of experts.

TRADE MISSION OF TOMSK REGION TO VISIT UZBEKISTAN

Administration of Tomsk region (Russia) in cooperation with Tomsk Chamber of Commerce and Industry are organizing trade-economic mission of business circles of Tomsk region to Tashkent on 14-16 June.

The delegation includes some 30-35 entrepreneurs and it is led by deputy governor of Tomsk on economic policy and investments Oxana Kozlovskaya.

The mission includes heads of machinery, timber enterprises and education complexes.

SOCIETY

FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CERVICAL CANCER PREVENTION OPENS

First National Conference organized by the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan jointly with UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund in Uzbekistan, is taking place on 19 May in Tashkent city, "Poytaht" Hotel and will be devoted to the issues of cervical cancer prevention and its early diagnostics.

Cervical cancer takes the second place among the oncological diseases of woman's reproductive system organs morbidity in Uzbekistan. Annually hundreds of reproductive age women die of complicated course of this disease.

It is commonly known that annually up to 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed worldwide, whereas in more than half of these cases disease is diagnosed at the late stages of its developing, and this causes high mortality rate of cervical cancer. This is not only lives of women but also children deprived of their mothers' care. At the same time the up-to-date methods allow diagnosing disease at its early stage of developing and even curing it.

In 2004 UNFPA put first steps towards implementation of new technology of early diagnosis, treatment and observation of cervix precancerous condition. As a result, laboratory and gynecology experts, professors of the higher medical specialized institutions of the republic have been trained in this area.

A Manual on cervical cancer laboratory and clinical diagnosis and treatment has been developed for the specialists in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Necessary equipment has been delivered to the rural medical stations, provincial oncological dispensaries for diagnosis, treatment and creation of database related to this disease. The present Conference will introduce to its participants the results of programme implementation in four pilot regions: Namangan, Jizzakh, Andijan and Khorezm, as well as discuss new approaches on cervical cancer prevention and assign future plans.

Reproductive health care issues are priority directions of the UNFPA Programme. "Worldwide, reproductive health conditions are the leading course of ill health and death in women…At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, 179 governments pledged to make reproductive health universally available "as soon as possible and no later than 2015".

UNFPA is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

FORUM OF WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS OF UZBEKISTAN HELD

Increasing women’s role in social and economic life of the country was the focus of the Forum of women’s organizations held in Tashkent. The event was organized by the Women’s Committee and NGO Mehr with the help of National NGOs association and the association of business women Tadbirkor Ayol.

Increase of the women’s status in the society is impossible without expanding their economic independence, the forum participants said. To ensure this, the government has been implementing territorial programs of women’s employment and creation of new workplaces. Among these are development of small business, forming favorable microcrediting environment, and attraction of foreign investments.

Today there are tens of women’s NGOs in Uzbekistan, which deal with legal education of women, teaching them new professions, helping with health problems and support low-income families.

As noted in the forum resolution, women, which account for more than half of Uzbekistan’s population, make a great contribution to stable development of our society. Providing them with conditions for decent life, ensuring their economic independence, professional growth, protecting their rights and interests are fundamental to reaching gender equality.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON BIODIVERSITY IN ARAL SEA AREA

Recent environmental changes require deep analysis of the situation in the Aral Sea area, which has rich flora and fauna, participants of an international conference on protecting biodiversity in the region said.

Specialists from Uzbekistan, Russia, Germany, France and Kazakhstan discussed urgent problems requiring solution in the area.

The conference participants considered results of the scientific researches in the region, namely use of plants on the territory of Southern Aral Sea Area, bioresources of microbes and perspectives of their use, protection of biodiversity and improvement of living conditions of the local residents.

SIXTEEN ASIAN FUTSAL TEAMS HEAD TO TASHKENT

The final stage of the AFC futsal championship started o¬n Sunday in Tashkent. All plays are scheduled to take place in the main arena of the Uzbekistan Sports Complex.

Uzbekistan national futsal team went through rigorous training for the championship in the Ukraine and Tashkent province. Mainly thanks to this we can hope our team can find itself among the top challengers for the triumph.

The expectations were cemented during the recent friendly face-off with the national team of Kuwait. Five goals of the Uzbek futsal players against nothing gave an impressive win to the Uzbek team.

According to the paper, the Asian futsal championship has been annually held since 1999. Iran national team is known to have secured all of the top places in them. During the championship in Tashkent 15 Asian national teams will challenge the Iranians. Championship will open o¬n May 21 with initial standoff between Kuwaiti and Lebanese futsal players. Uzbek team will start the tournament with the match against Malaysia, the report concludes.