June 15, 2009
Politics:
President to participate in CSTO and SCO summits in Russia
Economics:
UAE Delegation Visits Uzbekistan, Signs MoU in Tashkent
Legal assistance for businesses
Gas to be fully processed
Tashkent will receive 200 new buses
Society:
60 thousand boys and girls to be first-year students
Forum discusses teaching of English language
Golden hands of Uzbek woman
POLICY
PRESIDENT TO PARTICIPATE IN CSTO AND SCO SUMMITS IN RUSSIA
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov arrived in Moscow on 14 June to participate in the session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Heads of Uzbekistan, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan participated in the summit.
They considered the implementation of the CSTO decision to create the Collective swift response forces within the organization, National News Agency UzA reported.
The leaders also discussed issues of strengthening security and stability in the CSTO region, improvement of the efficiency of the organization’s activity and other issues of interest to the parties.
Islam Karimov will also participate in the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will be held in the city of Yekaterinburg on 15-16 June.
The main issues on the agenda of the SCO summit will be expansion of political, economic and humanitarian cooperation in the framework of the organization.
The presidents will also consider improvement of the activity of the SCO Secretariat and the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure, as well as regional security issues.
ECONOMY
UAE DELEGATION VISITS UZBEKISTAN, SIGNS MOU IN TASHKENT
This week the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ministry of Economy of the United Arab Emirates signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Tashkent, according to the Jahon Information Agency.
Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates are the states that enjoy substantial economic potential. The cooperation between the two countries is on the rise, according to observers. Thanks to the favorable investment climate created in Uzbekistan for foreign entrepreneurs the Emirates businesses are becoming keenly interested in engaging with their Uzbek partners in various spheres of leading business.
There are over seventy joint ventures that have been established along with Emirates investments attracted to Uzbekistan. They successfully operate in the spheres of trade, foodstuff, production of textile, construction materials, as well as the transport services.
“The United Arab Emirates highly value the cooperation with Uzbekistan,” the Emirates Minister of Economy Sultan bin Said al Mansoori said. “The ties between the two states based on friendship, mutual respect, trust and interest consistently develop in many spheres, including in the areas of trade, economy, investments, information technologies and tourism.”
According to the newspapers, as a part of their stay in Tashkent the UAE delegation also held talks at a number of ministries and agencies.
The delegation members visited the Khazrati Imom Complex (Khastimom), State Museum of history of Temurids, and saw exhibits on the life of the great medieval commander and statesman and his descendants.
LEGAL ASSISTANCE FOR BUSINESSES
The Committee of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Legislation, Judicial and Legal Issues jointly with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan organized a meeting with representatives of small and entrepreneurial businesses in Khorezm Region.
The discussion touched upon improving legal aid in conditions of the global financial and economic crisis.
According to statistics, the number of small businesses in Khorezm Region exceeds 30 thousand entities. Their share in the regional GDP reached almost 53%.
Participants believe the positive dynamics of the development of the sector is directly connected with the comprehensive support for entrepreneurs, including through tax benefits and preferences that encourage new initiatives of establishing and expanding business. Thanks to their mobility, ability to be relatively easy to adapt to the changes in the market and consumer demand, small businesses in conditions of the global economic crisis has become an effective mechanism of increasing incomes of the population.
Seminar participants emphasized that today the global financial and economic crisis and emerging problems are considered in all countries of the world as the most urgent issue. Uzbekistan as an integral part of the world economic system, conducts a proactive policy to prevent the negative impact of the crisis, in particular, developed the Anti Crisis Program. Special attention is paid in this program to deepening institutional reforms for creating more favorable business climate. From this perspective, as was highlighted during the meeting, there is a need for more active and effective explanation of the essence of the decisions made by leadership and the Government, as well as new laws improving legal literacy of entrepreneurs, and full protection of their interests.
GAS TO BE FULLY PROCESSED
A feasibility report has been approved in Uzbekistan for the project “Construction of the installation of propane-butane mixture for increasing production of liquefied gas at the unitary subsidiary Mubarek Gas Processing Factory”.
Feasibility study was approved by the Ordinance of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On additional measures to implement the investment project on increasing production of liquefied gas at Mubarek GPF. The work is carried out for accelerating the project on creation of new capacities for production of liquefied gas through a better extraction of valuable components from the processed natural gas.
The project will be financed through own funds of NHC Uzbekneftegaz, loans of the Reconstruction and Development Fund of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as credit facilities of the National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the State Development Bank of China. Part of the work will be conducted by units of Neftegazstroyinvest. The project will also involve Uzneftegazmash’s capacities for the production of petrochemical equipment.
TASHKENT WILL RECEIVE 200 NEW BUSES
Toshshahartranshizmat Association and EvoBus GmbH (Germany) signed a contract for supplying the capital by the end of the year with 200 Mercedes-Benz buses.
Toshshahartranshizmat Association conducting passenger operations in the capital signed a contract with German’s EvoBus GmbH for the supply of 200 Mercedes-Benz Conecto Low Floor buses of Euro3 class worth 26.4 mln. euro.
The contract will be financed through a loan of the Reconstruction and Development Fund of Uzbekistan. Under the contract, all buses will be delivered toward the end of the year.
As previously reported, last year the capital fleet of buses also received 200 Mercedes-Benz Conecto Low Floor.
Since 1994, Tashkent purchased almost 780 Mercedes-Benz buses for a total cost of about 100 mln.euro. The contracts were financed by credit facilities of German banks, as well as the Reconstruction and Development Fund of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The purchased earlier Mercedes-Benz O 405 models with 12-year or more useful life and over 1.2 million km of run will be put up for public auction. The realized funds will be directed toward paying off the loan of the Reconstruction and Development Fund drawn for purchasing new buses.
The program of updating the bus fleet of Tashkent and regions of Uzbekistan is aimed at acquisition of modern machines, running on diesel fuel. In particular, these are buses of Mercedes-Benz and Isuzu, produced by SamAvto, which allows the passenger services to significantly reduce fuel costs.
Since November 2008, all passenger buses running on gasoline and with two terms of depreciation were removed from roads of the capital.
Presently, Toshshahartranshizmat serves 125 urban bus routes, 2 commuter routes, 31 mini buses routes, 7 tram and trolleybus 5 routes. There are 3 subway lines with 29 stations. Last year, buses served 75% of passenger traffic.
The contract signed with the company EvoBus GmbH also covers free-of-charge supply of equipment, spare parts for Mercedes-Benz Conecto Low Floor buses amounting to 500 thousand euro and special tools worth 400 thousand euro for equipping the Mercedes-Benz Service Center.
In addition, 279 Isuzu buses of Samarkand Automobile Plant were purchased last year. Totally, Toshshahartranshizmat Association purchased 526 Isuzu buses in 2007-2009.
SOCIETY
60 THOUSAND BOYS AND GIRLS TO BE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov signed a Resolution “On admission to Uzbekistan institutions of higher education for 2009/2010 academic year.”
This year 60 institutions of higher educations, according to test examinations, will be entered by 57 305 boys and girls to Bachelor’s and 5 647 ones to MA courses. The admission to special correspondence course is discontinued in all institutions of higher education, except Tashkent University for Information Technologies and Kungrad Chemistry-Engineering Institute. Specialists believe it will lead to personnel training increase.
Special attention in the Resolution is given to issues of improvement of professionalism of tutors of higher education institutions. With the view of it, multiple regional centers for advanced trainings are to be set up. The trainings will be conducted with participation of leading specialists of home and foreign scientific-research institutions, construction departments, and enterprises. In accordance with the standards set in the document, tutors of all institutions of higher education are obliged to attend qualification improvement courses once in three years
FORUM DISCUSSES TEACHING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Uzbek State University of World Languages in Tashkent hosted a two-day conference "Social-culture aspects of teaching English" on June 12-13.
The event was organized at the initiative of the Association of English Teachers of Uzbekistan (UzTEA) at the support of the Uzbek State University of World Languages and US Embassy in Uzbekistan.
The organizers said the event creates opportunity for communication of English teachers from 12 regions of Uzbekistan. Two day event gathered over 200 people.
Participants discussed role of teachers in language classes, use of cards in teaching gender, creation friendship between cultures, cultural differences in teaching English, etc.
GOLDEN HANDS OF UZBEK WOMAN
Rich creative potential of Uzbek women - ingenuity and improvisation in their works has been winning people’s hearts at all times. The first republican fair exhibition “Golden hands of Uzbek woman” was held in the capital with the purpose of support of women’s national workmanship as well as more efficient selling their production.
An idea of conducting this exhibition emerged in the result of events held in all country’s regions and dedicated to women’s employment and their training entrepreneurship foundations. The Women’s Committee and Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan as well as Open joint-stock commercial bank Mircocreditbank made a decision on conducting the joint action on supporting outworker women with the aim of assisting with selling their production.
These days over 100 representatives from the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regions and Tashkent city presented their original articles reflecting each region’s peculiarities having demonstrated their bright creativity. According to organizers, the exhibition showed quite high development level of the Uzbek traditional trades and primitive trades and aroused a big visitors’ interest.
Presently the whole world gives a big preference to handmade articles. Uzbek craftswomen keep preservation of national, regional traditions and values in their creative work and take the world’s headmost positions in this sphere.
“The fair participants could not only get acquainted with each other but also exchange their skills and enrich with new ideas,” Dilbar Alimdjanova, Executive of the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan noted in her interview to UT. “In future this will have its impact on the growth of women’s activity in public sphere, raise their enterprising and economic knowledge. This event proved one more time that a woman contributes greatly into a family’s welfare due to her husbandry and thrift. Exhibition organizers think that such events should be also held on local and interregional level.”
“I was given a microcredit in 2006 thanks to which I opened a sewing workshop,” Norgul Naumetova from Nukus, Republic of Karakalpakstan told UT. “15 girls work with me. We produce different garments: ladies and men wear, uniform and others as well as handbags and furnishing. We are glad to be presented at this fair exhibition, see articles by craftswomen from other regions, estimate their level, and see our pluses and minuses in order to improve our mastery in future. I think this event is very useful for all of us.”