April 08, 2008

Politics:
Baseless Attacks & Insults On Islam Cannot be Allowed
Economics:
State and development prospects of mandatory types of insurance in Uzbekistan
UzbekNefteGaz to build new propane/butane mix production plant
British experts train Uzbek businessmen
Society:
People’s democrats prepare successors
The development of education in Uzbekistan
High technologies – precise diagnosis

POLICY

BASELESS ATTACKS & INSULTS ON ISLAM CANNOT BE ALLOWED

As it was communicated before, on April 3 this year President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov participated at the NATO/Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) Summit in Bucharest and took a floor.

In his address the Uzbek Leader enunciated his vision on the concrete actions to be taken to stop the ever-increasing violence and stabilize the situation in Afghanistan.

It is known that the world community is concerned with the conflict in Afghanistan which has been continuing for 30 years now. Everybody is well aware of the fact that within this period of time the international community and various states voiced various opinions on how to put an end to those very dangerous and bloody conflicts from high international rostrums and at numerous meetings and discussions which did not leave anybody indifferent.

The Uzbek people know well how the neighboring Afghan people have been suffering endless losses and problems by facing this deadly conflict and how the conflict is still persisting because of subversive activities organized mostly from abroad.

At the NATO/EAPC summit President Islam Karimov stressed the importance of implementing a number of urgent tasks to make positive influence on the current situation in Afghanistan.

“Firstly, it is very important to ensure the priority of resolution of the most acute and urgent social and economic problems, the problems of employment of population and strengthening the vertical and authority of power. In this we see the key to achieve the most important objective – the trust of population towards the international coalition forces,” – the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov said.

Taking into account the ancient history of Afghanistan, it is impossible to subdue and conquer the Afghan people only by use of force. This nation manifested this truth many times due to its national character and qualities, and by taking practical steps.

Since we are speaking about strengthening the stability in Afghanistan, along with providing for the living needs of the Afghan people by using the opportunities of international assistance, it is important to respect and support the traditional religious, national and cultural values and customs of the Afghan people, respect the interests of ethnic minorities and give appropriate guarantees on this issue, in a word, to stress the importance of recognizing the moral vision of the people living there, said the Uzbek Leader.

It will be hard to resolve positively the Afghan problem and establish peace and stability in that soil if we fail to observe these very important requirements and to implement this peaceful policy consecutively and decisively.

Developing further his view in this respect, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov urged to put a full stop to and not to tolerate unbearable and absolutely groundless attacks and slanders by some political circles which heavily insult the Afghan people, the whole Muslim world and the holy religion of Islam.

The Uzbek Leader touched upon another significant issue in his speech, i.e. he said it was expedient to resume the negotiation process on achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan in the framework of the contact group 6+2, which effectively functioned in 1997-2001 with the support of the United Nations.

It is known that the task of the contact group, which included the authorized representatives of states neighboring on Afghanistan – China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan plus the United States of America and Russia, was to elaborate common principles and approaches on achieving peace in Afghanistan.

Dwelling particularly on this issue and taking into consideration today’s realities and the future participation of a NATO representative in the negotiation process, President Islam Karimov stressed the necessity to transform the 6+2 contact group into 6+3.

To put it short, the views, conclusions and proposals on practical steps voiced and well-grounded by the Uzbek Leader at the NATO/EAPC Summit have a very important and timely significance, since they are aimed at defining perspective ways of practical cooperation with the world community in strengthening peace and stability not only in Afghanistan, but all over Central Asia. No doubt that those proposals will find a widespread support in our society. (“Khalq so’zi” newspaper)

ECONOMY

STATE AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS OF MANDATORY TYPES OF INSURANCE IN UZBEKISTAN

A roundtable meeting on the "Social aspects of mandatory insurance of employer's civil liability" was held in Tashkent on April 1.

The event was organized by the Adolat Socio-Democratic Party, the Committee for Labour and Social Issues of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis with the support of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

During the meeting the participants familiarized themselves with the provisions of the draft law "On mandatory insurance of employer's civil liability", discussed the issues raised during the discussion of the draft law by the legislature, and the implications the introduction of the law will have for the employers and employees. They also looked at the social aspects of the introduction of this law into force and discussed the current condition and development prospects of this type of insurance in Uzbekistan.

The Chairman of the Committee for Labour and Social Issues of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis I. Nasriev opened the meeting. He emphasized that the "insurance system should serve as one of the methods of guaranteeing the protection of the property interests of both business entities and individuals, citizens of the country, and provide social protection to different groups of the population."

Among the participants of the roundtable meeting were the representatives of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis (parliament) of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, as well as the representatives of the management of insurance companies.

During the meeting a member of the Adolat Party's fraction in the parliament Z. Botirova spoke of the "legal framework for the mandatory insurance of employers' civil liability" and the Chairman of the Fayz Holding Company M. Azimova delievered a report on the "main aspects of mandatory insurance of employers' civil liability." Also, the Deputy Head of the State Inspection for Insurance Supervision of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan I. Halimov, the Director-General of the UzbekInvest National Export and Import Insurance Company F. Saidahmedov, and the Director-General of the Madad Insurance Agency M. Ashurov and others also gave their comments on the new act of legislation.

During the active discussions recommendations were made on the introduction of amendments and addenda to the draft law "On mandatory insurance of employer's civil liability", and an agreed policy was developed on further improvement of the work in this direction.

UZBEKNEFTEGAZ TO BUILD NEW PROPANE/BUTANE MIX PRODUCTION PLANT

UzbekNefteGaz National Holding Company plans to build a new propane/butane production plant on the resource base of the fields of Shurtan group in the south of the country (total worth – some US$130 million), Uzreport Business Information Portal reported.

A source in the management of the company said that according to the preliminary results of the feasibility study the plant will process about 6 billion cubic meters (cbm) of natural gas yearly and produce up to 104,000 tonnes of the technical propane/butane mix with the separation of up to 56,000 tonnes of propane and 48,000 tonnes of butane, and 44,000 tonnnes of stable gasoline petrol yearly.

The project will be financed through foreign investments. At this time engagement of several potential investors in the project is being negotiated.

UzbekNefteGaz said the deposit group of the Shurtan group includes seven oil and four gas condensate fields. Their exploitation is managed by ShurtanNefteGaz.

Gas condensate field of Shurtan is one of the largest in Uzbekistan. It has been in exploitation since 1980. Some 15 billion cbm of natural gas is produced here every year. This comprises about 35% of the total gas production in the country.

In the late 2001 Uzbekistan launched the Shurtan Gas-Chemical Complex worth US$985 million on the base of this field. The projected capacity of the complex comprises 125,000 tonnes of PET, 137,000 tonnes of liquefied gas and 130,000 tonnes of unstable condensate yearly.

UzbekNefteGaz has also developed a number of projects aimed at increasing the production of liquefied gas in the country. The total investments through 2010 are estimated at about US$320 million. The implementation of these projects will help raise the production of LNG in the country to 586,900 tonnes yearly by 2010.

In particular, the projects aimed to boost production of LNG at ShurtanNefteGaz envisage the attraction of investments in the amount of US$74.25 million, Vesti.uz reported.

It is also planned to expand the production at Shurtan Gas-Chemical Complex. In particular, the issue on raising the complex's production capacity to 225,000 tonnes of PET yearly on the basis of ethane produced by ShurtanNefteGaz and transported to Shurtan Gas-Chemical by pipeline is being worked on with a number of investors.

BRITISH EXPERTS TRAIN UZBEK BUSINESSMEN

The Enterprise Management Development Centre of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan together with the British Council in Tashkent organized a two-day seminar in Tashkent on April 2.

The seminar entitled "Business improvement programme" is designed for marketing experts, representatives of consulting agencies as well as specialists in the field of financial services, a report by the Uzbek newspaper Vecherniy Tashkent said.

The event was aimed at developing leadership and entrepreneurial skills of small business representatives as well as assisting Uzbek businessmen in setting up and developing a private business and increasing the efficiency of existing projects.

The seminar was conducted by Stuart Mitchell, a founder of a business education consortium set up in affiliation with the University of Surrey in the UK.

"This meeting is a unique opportunity for Uzbek businessmen to study valuable experience of British colleagues in running a business," the report said.

SOCIETY

PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATS PREPARE SUCCESSORS

The “Istiqbol”, youth wing of People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDPU) determined its goals for 2008. The participants of the seminar, held in Tashkent, offered a number of practical measures for support of the members of the youth wing and attraction of youth to the party.

“For attraction of new members into the youth wing of the party we mean to use the experience of our branch in Andijan region. During street festivities the activists will distribute the booklets of the youth branches of all five parties of Uzbekistan among young people and tell in details what the youth wing of PDPU may offer them,” said, Akmal Umaraliev, leader of the youth wing of PDPU “Istiqbol”.

A big work is to be done by the young members of the party within the measures, stipulated by the “Year of Youth” State program. Particularly, the efforts of the “Istiqbol” members will be focused on employment of young specialists. The participants of the seminar offered to create “Young Legal Experts Clubs” under public reception offices of PDPU. One of the main directions of those clubs will be assistance in employment of the graduates of the higher and secondary special educational institutions and monitoring of vacancies in enterprises and organizations of the republic.

Young people’s democrats started preparing for the Parliament elections, to be held in 2009. As A.Umaraliev explained, the Youth Public Chamber, consisting of the most active members of “Istiqbol”, will be created under PDPU. The members of the Youth Public Chamber, the graduates of the higher educational institutions of all professions will be candidates for deputies of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis.

Such a big attention to the second largest party of Uzbekistan, in terms of the number of members and deputies in the Parliament, is no accident. Today, the youth wing of PDPU includes more than 82 thousands of young people, making almost 25% of all members of the party.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN UZBEKISTAN

Specialists made the eighth National Human Development Report 2007-2008 on the “Education of Uzbekistan: supply and demand balance”.

A group of national experts, specialists in education, economy, statistics and law prepared an analytical review by order of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and with the support of offices of UN organizations in Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Today reported.

Authors of the report analyzed the current state of the Uzbek educational system, pointed out its main successes in last years and discussed basic ways of its further development. Specialists determine further integration of education with production in personnel training as priority aspects of development.

In his welcoming speech as an introduction to the report the UNDP Permanent Representative Fikret Akchura notes that Uzbekistan has obtained high literacy level of the population that is not coincided in many industrially developed countries. He emphasizes that Uzbekistan pays much attention to quality improvement of education and its development and he thinks that it will have favorable impact on prosperity of the country in whole.

“The review in my opinion is quite evident, mainly due to that everyone who worked on the report expressed openly and freely their views on target problems”, noted Nasrilla Mirkurbanov, the report coauthor and head of the Tashkent Pedagogical University’s Department of Russian and Foreign Literature.

“I believe that the report will be useful for all who are interested in the development of Uzbekistan’s educational system and for non-specialists in this sphere because it is impossible to imagine future without an integrated educational system”, said Deputy director Edem Seitkhalilov of the Republican Center for Higher Education Development.

HIGH TECHNOLOGIES – PRECISE DIAGNOSIS

For the last decade improvement of diagnostics and treatment of children carditis is observed in Uzbekistan. In many respects it is promoted by equipment of medical institutions by modern diagnostic devices – echocardiographs, according to Uzbekistan Today newspaper.

The first echocardiograph in the Republic was installed in 1996 in a cardioreumatological branch of the clinic of the Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute. “Before the purchase of the device the diagnostics process included x-ray and electrocardiogram examination. That allowed putting a preliminary diagnosis and the final conclusion was made after the doctor listened cardiac murmurs. In this case there was a great risk of making a fatal mistake, - tells Noilya Usmanova, doctor of the clinic’s branch. - Application the echocardiograph reduces the probability of wrong diagnosis to the minimum, which allows selecting the most effective tactics of treatment in the shortest terms.

Currently there are also echocardiographs in some regional hospitals. Further improvement of diagnostics and treatment of cardioreumatological diseases is expected as a result of the carried out work on modernization of medical institutions of the state sector of public health services.