12 June, 2006

Politics
Legislative chamber discusses expertise of legislative bills

Business
Uzbekistan has over 6.47m heads of cattle
Uzbekistan receives 23.8bn soums from privatization in 1quarter
Uzbekistan plans to attract ADB credit to construct five small hydroelectric power stations
Uzbekistan negotiates aircraft sale to China
Number of Uzdunrobita's users increases by 6.9% in May
Lukoil to build drilling waste disposal area in Uzbekistan

Society
Final stage competitions of II Republican Games among women started in Karshi POLITICS

LEGISLATIVE CHAMBER DISCUSSES EXPERTISE OF LEGISLATIVE BILLS

Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan (lower house of Uzbek parliament) hosted a round-table dedicated to legal expertise of legislative bills.

Uzbek MPs, specialists of Justice Ministry and Centre on monitoring of normative-legal documents, scientists and others participated in the meeting.

The meeting discussed achievements and problems of legal expertise of bills and proposed ways to solve them. (UzReport.com)

ECONOMICS

UZBEKISTAN HAS OVER 6.47M HEADS OF CATTLE

Uzbekistan has over 6.47 million heads of cattle, including 2.82 million of cows, 1.21 million sheep and goats, 81,300 heads of pigs and 1.93 million of poultry in January-March 2006.

The Uzbek State Statistics Committee said the number of cattle increased by 5%, cows –4.6%, sheep and goat – 6.6%, pig – 3.3% and poultry – 8.2%.

The country manufactured 232,200 tonnes of meat in live weight (up 6.4% year-on-year), 844,400 tonnes of milk (up 6% year-on-year), 377.8 million of eggs (up 6.3% year-on-year).

Dehkan and private farms produced 96.4% of meat, 99.1% of milk, 58.3% of eggs, 98.3% of wool and 67.8% of karakul. (UzReport.com)

UZBEKISTAN RECEIVES 23.8 BLN SOUMS FROM PRIVATIZATION IN 1QUARTER

Uzbekistan privatized over 142 objects and enterprises in the first quarter of 2006, according to quarterly report of Uzbek State Statistics Committee.

The report said the largest number of objects was privatized in Tashkent city (17.6% from total number of privatized objects), Surkhandarya region (12.7%) and Tashkent region (12%).

Largest number of privatized objects fell to share of Uzbekneftegaz (22.5%), local administrations (20.4%), Health Ministry (12.7%) and Public Education Ministry (9.9%).

Uzbekistan received 23.8 billion soums from privatization and denationalization. The committee said 46.1% of all funds from privatization came from Tashkent city, 19.3% - Ferghana region, 11.8% - Tashkent region and 9% - Bukhara region. (UzReport.com)

UZBEKISTAN PLANS TO ATTRACT ADB CREDIT TO CONSTRUCT FIVE SMALL HYDROELECTRIC POWER STATIONS

Uzbekistan plans to attract credit of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for US$30 million to construction of five small hydroelectric power stations in 2006, representative of Uzvodenergo (Uzbek Water Energy) told Interfax.

The report said the country wants to construct three hydroelectric power stations (HPS) in Dargom channel in Samarkand region – Gulba HPS (capacity 5 megawatt), Shaudarya and Bagishamal stations (6 megawatt each).

Two more stations will be constructed in Ferghana region and Tashkent region. Small HPS in Ferghana region will be located at Karkidon water reservoir (11 megawatt) and Pioner HPS in Tashkent region (8 megawatt).

Total annual electricity production of these small stations will make up 182 million kilowatt per hour.

Uzvodenergo said the projects are under development. The ADB can allocate credit in 2006 and the realization of project will be started in 2007.

Within programme on development of small hydroelectric power stations, Uzbekistan plans to construct 15 stations with total capacity of 423 megawatt, which will allow to produce annually 1.36 billion kilowatt of electricity per hour.

Uzvodenergo is completing construction of first of two energy blocks of Tupalang hydroelectric power station with capacity of 30 megawatt. Totally, two energy blocks of Tupalang station will produce 63 million kilowatt of energy per hour.

Within the above-mentioned programme, the country commissioned Urgut hydroelectric power station in Samarkand region with capacity of 3 megawatt. This station can produce 12 million kilowatt/hour of electricity annually.

According to assessments of specialists, Uzbekistan has over tens of water reservoirs, irrigation channels and mountain rivers, where can be constructed over 141 power stations with capacity of 1,180 megawatt with annual electricity production of 4.6 billion kilowatt/hour.

Annually, Uzbekistan produces over 48 billion kilowatt/hour of electricity. The share of hydroelectric power stations in total production makes up 10%. Uzbekistan produced 47.58 billion kilowatt/hour of electricity in 2005 or 4.2% down year-on-year compared to 2004. Hydroelectric power stations manufactured 692 million kilowatt/hour of electricity in 2005 or 33.3% up year-on-year. (UzReport.com)

UZBEKISTAN NEGOTIATES AIRCRAFT SALE TO CHINA

China intends to place an order for a large batch of aircraft from Uzbekistan, a senior Uzbek aviation official told in an interview.

Vadim Kucherov, head of the Tashkent Aircraft Production Plant named after Chkalov (TAPOiCh), was speaking during a visit to Uzbekistan's only aircraft manufacturing plant by Li Changchun, member of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee.

"Talks to buy a large consignment of aircraft are now at an active stage. We will soon resolve all issues and Uzbekistan's TAPOiCh will then be building aircraft for the People's Republic of China," Kucherov said. (UzReport.com)

NUMBER OF UZDUNROBITA'S USERS INCREASES BY 6.9% IN MAY

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), largest mobile operator of Russia and CIS, said its Uzbek subsidiary increased number of subscribers from 720,000 in April to 770,000 in May. Uzdunrobita, in which MTS owns 74% stake, recorded 6.9% growth of subscribers in May. MTS said Uzdunrobita has 390,000 subscribers in May 2005. The growth of number of subscribers comprised 96.2% year-on-year.

Consolidated number of subscribers of MTS grew from 61.77 million in April 2005 to 62.89 million in May 2006 or up 1.8%.

Russia's largest mobile phone operator Mobile TeleSystems, or MTS, bought a 74% stake in Uzdunrobita for US$121 million in July 2004. MTS has also signed a three-year option deal to acquire the remaining 26% for US$37.7 million.

Uzdunrobita, founded in 1991, has licenses to provide mobile services in GSM and AMPS/DAMPS standards in Uzbekistan. Both licenses are valid until 2016. Currently, there are eight mobile operators in Uzbekistan, including five GSM standard operators. (UzReport.com)

LUKOIL TO BUILD DRILLING WASTE DISPOSAL AREA IN UZBEKISTAN

Lukoil-VolgogradNIPImorneft LLC has prepared the layout for the construction of the site of temporary storage and utilization of drilling wastes in Uzbekistan.

According to the information provided by the Planning Institute "Uzhydromeliovodhoz", an institution that participated in the development of the project, the site will be built in Bukhara region, in direct proximity with the exploitational wells on the Hauzak-Shady field. The project is said to have an important environmental protection meaning. The construction of the drilling waste disposal area on the territory of Uzbekistan is implemented for the first time. At this time, the draft and design papers on construction of the site have already been checked by the State Committee for Architecture and Construction. The project received a positive feedback from the State Ecological Examination of the State Nature Committee of Uzbekistan.

In selection of the field for construction, the architects researched the area with the aim of identifying the engineering-geological characteristics of the soil and ground, the depth of ground water. The specialists of the state controlling agencies of Uzbekistan and State Nature Committee participated in the work.

The main supplier of equipment will be Krasnodar (Russia) based Tehnomehservice Company LLC. The production capacity of the complex will make up 12,000 tonnes of wastes yearly. The cost of the project is not being disclosed. However, according to the information of the source in Uzbekneftegaz (Uzbek Oil and Gas) National Holding Company, the construction of the waste disposal area will cost Lukoil Company around US$7 million.

Lukoil is engaged in two major projects on the territory of Uzbekistan. In 2004, the company signed a product sharing agreement with Uzbekneftegaz on the development of Hauzak, Shady, and Kandym fields for the period of 35 years. The confirmed resources of theses fields make up over 280 billion cbm of gas. The project requires the attraction of direct investments in the amount of around US$1 billion.

The first gas from these fields is expected in the mid-2007. Eventually, the extraction should increase to 10 billion cbm yearly.

In July of this year, Lukoil as a member of the international consortium, which also includes Malaysian Petronas, Korean Korea National Oil Corporation, and Chinese CNPC, is planning to start the exploration of natural gas and gas condensate in the area of Aral Sea with the estimated storage of over 1 trillion cbm of gas. (RosBalt)

SOCIETY

FINAL STAGE COMPETITIONS OF II REPUBLICAN GAMES AMONG WOMEN STARTED IN KARSHI

Final stage competitions of II Republican Games among women started with competitions in the pool of the College of Olympic reserve in city of Karshi. Participants started their competitions in volleyball, streetball, track and field athletics, table tennis, a chess, checkers and swimming.

Later, in stadium " Nasaf " of Karshi city the opening ceremony of Final stage competitions of II Republican Games among women will take place.

Deputy Prime-Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Chairman of the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan Svetlana Inamova participated in the opening ceremony. (National Information Agency of Uzbekistan - UzA)