5 July, 2006

Politics
Uzbekistan opens new border post in south Surkhondaryo Region
Uzbekistan campaigns for raising public's legal awareness
Uzbek Lawyers Address Problems of Jurisprudence
Japan pays special attention to development of ties with Uzbekistan

Economics
Uzbek head sets order on realization of state shares of Toshavtobustrans
Tashkent seminar discusses e-document turnover
Uzbek electrical and electronic industry presented in Germany
UZ-CERT to hold roundtable on information security
LUKOIL to invest US$6bn in Uzbekistan in 2006-10
Pakistan Welcomes New Air-Link With Uzbekistan

Society
Germany sends humanitarian aid for 425,000 euros to Uzbekistan
Tourism and ecotourism for stable development
Colours of Samarkand in Warsaw
Uzbek director receives award of 28th Moscow International Film Festival
Uzbek designers to present their collections in Astana

POLITICS

UZBEKISTAN OPENS NEW BORDER POST IN SOUTH SURKHONDARYO REGION

New border posts which meet world standards and which are provided with the most modern equipment, are being commissioned in order to ensure the inviolability of the country's borders. One such facility that has been put into operation in southern Uzbekistan's Surkhondaryo Region.

The facility has all service conditions in place for its border guards. Foreign ambassadors, Uzbek law-enforcement officials and representatives of public organizations took part in the inauguration of this border post.

Those who spoke at the event congratulated the border guards on the inauguration of the new building, which fully meets modern requirements, and wished them success in their hard and honourable service.

Those present at the ceremony were shown around the facility to learn about the conditions created there for the border guards. The border guards were especially happy to receive off-road vehicles. Such conditions will doubtless serve to increase the border guards' combat preparedness.

The foreign guests said that cooperation with Uzbekistan would continue in the future as well. (BBC Monitoring Central Asia)

UZBEKISTAN CAMPAIGNS FOR RAISING PUBLIC'S LEGAL AWARENESS

Scientific and practical conferences are being arranged in the region at the initiative of the republic's Prosecutor-General's Office and the Interior Ministry. These events are devoted to discussing tasks arising from the presidential decrees "On abolishing the death penalty in the Republic of Uzbekistan" and "On passing the right to issue arrest warrants to courts".

Representatives from the law-enforcement agencies, leading scholars and MPs in the Supreme Assembly's Senate (parliament's upper house) from Namangan Region took part in a conference held in the Namangan region.

Both decrees require to make amendments and addenda to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedural Code, as well as to laws on prosecutor's office and courts of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The conference outlined important tasks arising from these decrees. Proposals expressed at the meeting will be submitted to the Senate and the Legislative Chamber of the Supreme Assembly. (BBC Monitoring Central Asia)

UZBEK LAWYERS ADDRESS PROBLEMS OF JURISPRUDENCE

Scientific-practical conference "Urgent problems of developing the legal sciences" was held in Tashkent. The event was organized by Council oŽn reforming legislative foundations of the state and public construction, judicial-legal system of the President of Republic of Uzbekistan.

The deputies and senators from Uzbek parliament, delegates from the ministries, law-enforcement bodies and courts took part at the meeting.

Deputy state adviser to the President of Uzbekistan, the Director of Institute for monitoring of the current legislation Mr. F. Otakhonov spoke about the special importance of developing the legal sciences along establishing the legal state.

Also, during the conference the lawyers dwelled upon the actual and theoretical problems, organizational and practical issues of developing the legal sciences, problems of implementing the results of the research in this field into practice.

Lawyers have underscored that the forecast ability of jurisprudence should become a basis of reforms in the state and society construction, as well as in judicial-legal reforms.

Also, the delegates addressed the training of scientific and pedagogical staff and have elaborated the recommendations oŽn major directions of developing the legal sciences. (UzReport.com)

JAPAN PAYS SPECIAL ATTENTION TO DEVELOPMENT OF TIES WITH UZBEKISTAN

Japan pays special attention to development of relations with Uzbekistan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Uzbekistan Yuichi Kusumoto said at the last meeting in series of "Talks with envoy".

The meetings have been held at Uzbek-Japan Human Centre each month since February 2006 and the last meeting was devoted to relation between Uzbekistan and Japan. Kusimoto said Japan pays attention to develop relations with Uzbekistan, including in economy, politics, culture and others.

Uzbekistan and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1992 and the sides exchanged visits of high ranked officials, envoy said.

Japanese diplomat said Japan is actively supports not only development of relations in bilateral level, but also in regional level. It should be noted the role of meeting of Foreign Ministers of Central Asia plus Japan dialogue, last of which was held in Tokyo, Japan in June.

Yuichi Kusumoto noted importance of information exchange and added that there is shortage of information on Uzbekistan in Japan, which results in small level of investments and tourists. He said some 3,000-4,000 Japanese tourists visit Uzbekistan. Overall, 16-18 million Japanese make visits various parts of world annually.

Japanese diplomat said Uzbekistan have great potential to attract large number of Japanese tourists through presentation of information and advertisements at Japanese television. He said representatives of leading Japanese channels NHK visited Uzbekistan recently and it is planning to prepare documentary on Uzbekistan within series of "Great Silk Road Countries". (UzReport.com)

ECONOMICS

UZBEK HEAD SETS ORDER ON REALIZATION OF STATE SHARES OF TOSHAVTOBUSTRANS

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov signed on Monday, 3 July, a resolution on realization of state shares of Toshavtobustrans (Tashkent Bus Transport) to private property. The document said the move directed to ensure improvement quality of transpiration service to Tashkent city population.

The resolution said that the state shares of Toshavtobustrans will be realized to private owners in two stages.

The first stage (2006-2007) envisages realization of the state shares in bus fleets to private owners with adding cost of 159 Mercedes Benz buses, on which foreign credits were repaid fully, to charter capital.

The second stage stimulates emission of shares equal to cost of 362 Mercedes Benz buses, on which foreign credits were not fully repaid, and their placement among private investors.

State Property Committee was entrusted in cooperation with Finance Ministry and Toshavtobustrans to bring charter capital of bus fleets in line with present resolution, including cost of 362 Mercedes Benz buses.

The document said the state shares of the bus fleets of Toshavtobustrans will be realized in closed auctions, first of all, to labour collective and enterprises of Toshavtobustrans. The resolution said that 30% of funds received from realization of state shares will be directed to repay foreign credits attracted to purchase Mercedes Benz buses. Tashshahartranshizmat (Tashkent city Transport Services) association will receive 40% of funds till the end of 2010 and it will direct to update transport fleet. The company should return received funds after five years.

The other part of funds will be shared in accordance with legislation of Uzbekistan, the document added.

The resolution also approved suggestion of Economy Ministry, Finance Ministry, State Property Committee, Tashkent city administration, Tashshahartranshizmat and Asaka Bank on modernization of bus fleets in Tashkent within 2008-2010 with buses using diesel and gas fuel, due to own funds of Tashshahartranshizmat, funds received from realization of state share in bus fleets, credits of local and foreign banks, as well as international financial institutions.

The document approved suggestion on creation of leasing company by Asaka Bank and Tashshahartranshizmat. The company will lease buses to legal entities, which will carry out commercial transportation of passengers based on corresponding licenses.

The resolution exempted newly created leasing company from payment of customs payments, except custom registration fee, in import of passenger buses till 1 January 2010. (UzReport.com)

TASHKENT SEMINAR DISCUSSES E-DOCUMENT TURNOVER

Seminar entitled "System electronic document turnover" was held in Tashkent.

Association of organisations and enterprises of information technologies of Uzbekistan, IBM, Baik Technolojies initiated the event at the support of the Uzbek Agency for Communication and Information.

The seminar aimed at improvement of acknowledgment of potential of customers on ways of improvement of effectiveness of companies through introduction of electronic document turnover. (UzA)

UZBEK ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC INDUSTRY PRESENTED IN GERMANY

Uzeltehprom, Uzbek Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association, in cooperation with the Uzbek embassy in Germany and Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V. (ZVEI), the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association organized a presentation of electrical and electronic industry of Uzbekistan in Frankfurt am Main.

ZVEI unites over 1,400 enterprises, of which 1,100 are small and medium business entities. The presentation was held within annual meeting of working group of ZVEI, which unites interest of German companies in cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe.

The 'ZVEI said in its web site that it represents the economic, technological and environmental policy interests of the German electrical and electronics industry at the national, European and international levels. It provides specific information about the economic, technical and regulatory framework conditions of the electrical industry in Germany. The ZVEI promotes the development and use of innovative technologies by proposals concerning research, technological, environmental protection, educational and scientific policy. It supports market-orientated European and international standards-making activities.

The interest of German companies in cooperation with Uzbekistan is natural. It said Uzbekistan has favourable investment climate, modern production capacities and skilled specialists, which creates good ground for mutual beneficial cooperation with leading foreign electrical and electronic manufacturers.

Uzeltehprom presented a report on economic situation in Uzbekistan and situation in industry, including issues on privatization, creation of joint ventures, protection of investments and opportunities of cooperation. The Uzbek side presented several proposals on purchase of shares in Uzbek enterprises by foreign investors.

Horst Gerlach, general manager and board member of ZVEI, said information on electrical and electronic industry of Uzbekistan impressed participants of the meeting.

The sides discussed issues on certification of important products, organisation of specialized exhibition in Uzbekistan, equipment of enterprises, trade and distribution network of Uzeltehprom and others.

The agency said the German side noted that the meeting with Uzbek colleagues will serve as starting point in continuation of dialogue on establishment of mutual beneficial collaboration. (UzReport.com)

UZ-CERT TO HOLD ROUNDTABLE ON INFORMATION SECURITY

Within near two months, Uzbek Computer Emergency Response Team (UZ-CERT) plans to hold a roundtable with participation of service providers to address ensuring the information security of the local information resources and coordination of the activity in the sphere, the web site of the centre (www.cert.uz) said. The roundtable will discuss the aforesaid issues under the topic "Establishing UZ-CERT interaction with service providers to ensure the information security of national information systems". Other issues on the agenda include the elaboration of mechanism for the timely discovery and addressing the weaknesses and threats at the servers, which host the on-line resources of the state administrative bodies, prevention of computer emergencies and violations of current legislation in the sphere, discussion and conclusion of several arrangements on mutual beneficial cooperation, and other. Computer emergency response team is a center for the national information systems and Internet users, which focuses its operations in gathering and analyzing information on computer emergencies. The response team also provides consultancy and technical support for the net users in preventing the threats of computer security, the report further indicated. (UzReport.com)

LUKOIL TO INVEST US$6BN IN UZBEKISTAN IN 2006-10

Russian LUKOIL is planning to invest a total of US$6 billion in Uzbekistan in 2006-10, of which 2.4bn dollars will be directly spent on developing the oil and gas sector. The Uzbekneftegaz (Uzbek oil and gas) national holding company and LUKoil started the drilling of development wells in accordance with the field development plan of the Khauzak contract area of Dengizkul gas field (southwestern part of Republic of Uzbekistan). The report said geologists have discovered a lot of promising gas reserves in the Khauzak desert situated around Dengizkol Lake in the plains in Bukhara region's Olot district. The area borders on (southern) Kashkadarya region. It is planned that the Russian partners will drill 18 gas fields in the next three years.

The report added local specialists, together with Russian and Chinese partners, are working in a hilly area, employing new, modern methods. They participated in the launch of the drilling unit, during which the new prospects of partnership were spoken about. (Uzbek TV)

PAKISTAN WELCOMES NEW AIR-LINK WITH UZBEKISTAN

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has welcomed the Uzbek government's decision to restore direct air-links between Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

Talking to Uzbekistan Airways' Country Manager Orifjon Ruzimurodov here, LCCI President Mian Shafqat Ali said the restoration of air-links between Pakistan and Uzbekistan would help open up new vistas for the business communities of the two countries, besides strengthening bilateral trade.

He said despite the fact that the world had become global village, the trade among regional countries was of prime importance and people in the two countries would now be better placed to benefit from each other's experience.

Mian Shafqat Ali said the efforts of Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov needed to be appreciated as the step would definitely give much-required boost to the trade between the two countries. (Asia Pulse)

SOCIETY

GERMANY SENDS HUMANITARIAN AID FOR 425,000 EUROS TO UZBEKISTAN

German state and medical establishments have sent a humanitarian aid to Uzbekistan worth 425,000 euros. The health body of Berlin, Geksal, Altana and others contributed to the humanitarian cargo.

The cargo includes medicaments, expensive sterilizer, operation lamps, wheelchair, equipment for eye surgery and others.

The agency said in its report that aid will be used to equip medical establishments in Uzbekistan and Soglom Avlod Uchin international charity foundation will distribute cargo to Uzbek medical establishments.

The report said humanitarian cooperation is important part of Uzbek-German relations and the German side provided humanitarian aid for 1.16 million euros in 2005. (“Jahon” Information Agency)

TOURISM AND ECOTOURISM FOR STABLE DEVELOPMENT

Pursuant to the Presidential Resolution "On measures to speed up the development of services sphere in Uzbekistan in 2006-2010", as well as for the purpose of implementing ECOSAN Programme on development of services sphere and the ecological tourism service in 2006-2010, ECOSAN International Organisation and ECOSAN-Tour Center of International Ecological Tourism are planning to conduct the Marathon of Eco-Festivals "Tourism and Ecotourism for stable development" dedicated to 15th anniversary of Uzbekistan's independence in July-August of this year.

The aim of the event is to demonstrate the achievements made by Uzbekistan over the years of independence, promote tourism and ecotourism potential of the country, and develop the internal ecological tourism supporting stable development, improved socio-ecological situation, increased employment, as well as preservation of natural and cultural heritage.

The programme of the eco-festivals includes a thematic exhibition "Tourism and ecotourism for stable development", a presentation of ecotourism routes and a concert of variety artists of Uzbekistan.

Tashkent will host such festival on 8 July. The event will be held at the Park of Culture and Recreation named after Mirzo Ulugbek. Members of the Senate and Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan, heads and representatives of ministries, departments, public organizations, hotels, tourist firms and companies, active members of mahallas (local community centers) of Tashkent, members of ECOSAN association, as well as representatives of regions and the Republic of Karakalpakstan will participate in the event. (UzReport.com)

COLOURS OF SAMARKAND IN WARSAW

An exhibition of a famous Polish artist Stanislav Poznansky entitled "The Colours of Samarkand" has opened in Warsaw. The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Asian and Pacific with the assistance of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Poland.

The works displayed at the exhibition were created during the artist's trip to Uzbekistan in 1960-70s. In his works, Poznansky reflected the day-to-day life of Uzbek people, architectural monuments, landscapes, city sceneries, etc. The exposition also includes the works of Uzbek national craftsmen – works of ceramic, atlas (satin) and silk. The representatives of ministries and departments, business circles, diplomatic corps accredited in the country, figures of culture and art of Poland participated in the opening ceremony. In his speech, the Director of the Museum of Asia and Pacific A. Vovzhinyak noted that the exhibition is intended to stimulate further development of cooperation between the two countries, provide and opportunity to the Polish people familiarize themselves more closely with the culture and traditions of Uzbek nation. (UzReport.com)

UZBEK DIRECTOR RECEIVES AWARD OF 28TH MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The laureates of the 28th Moscow International Film Festival were announced during its closing ceremony. Uzbek director Yolkin Tuychiev became the second prize-winner in the nomination of young talents "Prospects" for his movie "Chashma" (Spring). (UzReport.com)



UZBEK DESIGNERS TO PRESENT THEIR COLLECTIONS IN ASTANA

International Festival of National Costumes will open in Astana on 6 July. The winners of the international contest of high fashion in Moscow will participate in the event.

In total, over 20 designers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia will present their collections. In the framework of the festival, an exhibition of decorative-applied art works will be held at the national-cultural centers.

The winners of the festival will be awarded diplomas and souvenirs. (UzReport.com)