August 05, 2009
Politics:
Report by the Information Agency “Jahon”
Uzbekistan and Vietnam Always Enjoyed Friendly Relations, Says Vietnamese Official as He Visits Country
Economics:
President resolves to create a new company to boost rural housing construction
Number of enterprises in Uzbekistan reaches 495,300 as of 1 July
Virtual Commerce and Real Income
Society:
Social and legal aspects of labour migration of women
Samarkand-Based Hospital Acquires Latest Equipment
POLICY
REPORT BY THE INFORMATION AGENCY “JAHON”
The Uzbek side does not see any necessity and suitability in implementing the plans in terms of deploying the additional contingent of the Russian armed forces in the south of Kyrgyzstan, which is stipulated about in the Memorandum “On the intentions of the Russian Federation and Kyrgyz Republic on further developing and improving the bilateral treaty and legal basis, which regulates the stay of the Russian military formations on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, and deploying of additional Russian military contingent on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic” signed on August 1 this year.
The implementation of such projects on the rather complex and difficult-to-predict territory, where the borders of the three Central Asian republics directly meet, may render an impetus for strengthening the processes in terms of militarization and arousing various nationalistic confrontations, as well as the actions of radical extremist forces that could lead to a serious destabilization of situation in the greater region.
UZBEKISTAN AND VIETNAM ALWAYS ENJOYED FRIENDLY RELATIONS, SAYS VIETNAMESE OFFICIAL AS HE VISITS COUNTRY
The Vietnamese delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Zan Win visited Uzbekistan. As a part of its stay in the country the delegation took part at the third session of the Uzbek-Vietnamese intergovernmental commission for trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation.
Also, the Vietnamese delegation held bilateral meetings at various ministries and agencies in the country. At them the delegation members discussed the issues of further developing the bilateral cooperation, Jahon Information Agency reported.
Vietnam is one of dynamically developing country in Southeast Asia. At the moment, Vietnam implements 11 thousand projects with participation of foreign capital totaling 165 billion dollars.
The friendly relations between Uzbekistan and Vietnam are consistently strengthening. The successful visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Vietnam in March 1996 rendered a significant impetus to such cooperation.
At the moment, the bilateral documents that have been signed during the top-level visit to Vietnam are creating the necessary conditions for strengthening cooperation between Tashkent and Hanoi in politics, trade -economic and cultural-humanitarian spheres.
“Uzbekistan and Vietnam always enjoyed the friendly relations”, said Mr. Le Zan Win while speaking to the Informational Agency “Jahon”. “The Vietnamese people know Uzbekistan very well. Many of them have been well educated here and now they work in leading positions in various spheres of our country. We appraise our long-time friendship with our sincere, friendly and always hospitable Uzbek people”.
In the course of the third session of the intergovernmental commission for trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation we have pinpointed the main priority directions of bilateral cooperation for forthcoming period. As one of the directions we have defined the external trade which envisages the growth in goods turnover, he added.
“In particular, we have an opportunity to export tropical, agricultural products, seafood, goods of light industry – textile goods and footwear. In its turn, we could buy cotton, fertilizers, silk, construction materials, and various technical equipments from Uzbekistan. The Republic of Uzbekistan has an enormous potential in prospecting and extracting oil and gas”, Mr. Le Zan Win has also said.
According to him, one of directions of the Uzbek-Vietnamese cooperation is the cooperation in agricultural sphere. Uzbekistan is famous in the world as a world supplier of different kinds of agricultural products, including cotton, which we are keenly interested in to procure. Vietnam is also one of large producers and suppliers of tropical, agricultural products, as well as the natural rubber, coffee, tea, seafood.
“We hope for active cooperation in the sphere of science and education, training specialists and educational exchange programs. Taking into consideration that more than 3 thousand Vietnamese nationals studied at higher educational establishments of Uzbekistan, we could continue cooperation in this sphere successfully, setting direct contacts with higher educational and scientific-research establishments of two countries,” the head of the Vietnamese delegation said.
Mr. Le Zan Win has also said that Vietnam observes with a keen interest the considerable progress of Uzbekistan achieved in the years of independence.
“We are very glad of achievements of Uzbekistan. By the way I want to congratulate the Uzbek people on the 18 years of Independence and the 2200th anniversary of the city of Tashkent. We wish them further successes in socio-economic development of the country along. We also wish peace and prosperity,” Mr. Le Zan Win concluded.
ECONOMY
PRESIDENT RESOLVES TO CREATE A NEW COMPANY TO BOOST RURAL HOUSING CONSTRUCTION
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov on August 3 this year signed a resolution "On additional measures to expand the scales of housing construction in rural area".
The document has been worked out and approved in pursuance of the "Year of Rural Development" State Program and in order to cardinally improve housing conditions of the rural population on the basis of expansion of the scales of individual housing construction under the typical projects in line with the general plans and the projects of architectural-planning organization of rural settlements, Uzreport Information Portal reported.
It should be noted that the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Karakalpakstan and regional administrations have selected 42 land areas, out of the category of agricultural lands and forest resources, for the implementation of pilot projects on construction of housing and social objects under the typical projects.
Moreover, the sources of crediting of the individual housing construction in rural areas under the approved typical projects for 2009/10 worth 260.5 billion soums, including for 2009 worth 65.5 billion soums have been determined.
In line with the presidential resolution, a new specialized subsidiary engineering company – Qishloq Qurilish Invest (Rural Construction Invest) – will be founded on the initiative of the open joint-stock commercial Qishloq Qurilish Bank. The company will have branches in each region of the country for rendering assistance to individual builders in housing construction under the typical projects.
The newly created engineering company has been entrusted with some functions, including the marketing study of the housing market and preparation of recommendations on selection of building areas, structure of the housing to be constructed, social and engineering infrastructure objects.
The company will also on contractual basis act as a promoter of new housing construction on the turn-key basis, as well as social and engineering infrastructure objects in rural settlements, including the organization of financing and technical supervision over the construction process.
The presidential resolution has determined that the construction of production infrastructure objects on the individual housing construction areas shall be carried out due to the funds of investors and credits of commercial banks, while the construction of social infrastructure objects and external engineering networks shall be financed due to the funds of local budgets and sponsors.
The specialized engineering company Qishloq Qurilish Invest has been exempted until 1 January 2014 from the payment of all types of taxes and compulsory charges in the National Road Fund and Off-Budget School Education Fund.
NUMBER OF ENTERPRISES IN UZBEKISTAN REACHES 495,300 AS OF 1 JULY
The number of registered legal entities in Uzbekistan was 495,300 units as of 1 July 2009, 460,900 of them (93.1% of total registered enterprises) were operating, according to the data of the Uniform State Business Register.
The greatest number of enterprises and institutions was registered in trade and catering (26.6% of total registered enterprises), agriculture (23.8%. excluding private farms), industry (11.3%) and construction (8%), according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan.
In the total number of registered enterprises the share of enterprises with non-state form of ownership was 93.1% of which 59.3% - private and dekhkan farms, 22.8% - private enterprises, 0.9% - enterprises with participation of foreign capital, 0.4% - joint-stock companies, 16.6% – other enterprises.
The number of newly registered enterprises and institutions was 24,100 in January-June 2009, their significant number was marked in the city of Tashkent (15.1% of total registered enterprises in the republic), Kashkadarya region (12.6%), Ferghana region (9%) and Andijan region (8.6%).
In the sectoral structure of newly created enterprises 28% - the share of agriculture, 26.7% - trade and catering, 14.8% - industry.
In the reporting period 13,100 enterprises and institutions were liquidated. Out of them 1,900 were liquidated voluntarily.
The significant number of liquidated enterprises was marked in the city of Tashkent (17.6% of total enterprises liquidated by the republic), Surkhandarya region (11.3%), Tashkent region (9.8%) and Ferghana region (8.3%).
In the sectoral structure of liquidated enterprises 31.4% – the share of trade and catering, 28.1% – agriculture, 13.9% – industry.
VIRTUAL COMMERCE AND REAL INCOME
According to experts’ forecasts, this year will become a determinant for electronic commerce development in Uzbekistan. Establishment of the UZ-TO’LOV national payment system by Xalq Banki became another step in formation of the digital structure for existing model of the economy.
Today financial crediting institutions of Uzbekistan start developing such new segments of banking sector here as electronic commerce and online payment processes associated with it. Yet a few years ago only two payment systems Paynet and WebMoney Uzbekistan were operating in the country that had just started development in regions. Currently a customer may use this kind of services almost in each corner of our republic. But to say more, now it is impossible to imagine any country’s settlement without usual titles: Paynet, FASTPAY, Unipay and others. The tradition of cash payment for different services becomes a thing of the past giving way to hi-tech digital innovations.
Halk Bank has started developing UZ-TO’LOV national payment system in early 2009 and managed to introduce it into commercial use for a short period of time. It is designed for making various retail payments by individuals as well as money transfer in national currency. The system provides real-time full automation of population payments and integration into banking system. It allows payments in any convenient way for a customer: cash, bank cards, using payment and reference terminals of mass self-service (info stands), by means of distance accounting services systems and mobile phones.
The access to the payment system will be available through web browsers as well as payment terminals and mobile telephones connected to the internet. The UZ-TO’LOV is distinguished by the possibility of payments not only in cash but also using plastic cards, special consumers’ accounts.
In order to work within the payment system, all non-bank operators will have to deposit in favor of Halk Bank and then they will be able to take payments within this system‘s coverage area. In case the agreement is annulled, mutual obligations will be settled and remnants of deposited money will be paid back. Halk Bank withholds the commission fee for services at transferring a recipient the received payments within deadline and according to the order determined in corresponding agreements and distributes these funds to operators.
Presently, Halk Bank is one of the biggest financial crediting institutions of the banking system in Uzbekistan. Over 10,000 specialists work in its 14 regional, 199 district (municipal) branches, over 240 mini-banks and almost 2,600 offices and special cash desks. The bank’s assets made up 528.8 bln soums, as of January 1, 2009.
SOCIETY
SOCIAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF LABOUR MIGRATION OF WOMEN
A series of trainings on "Migration of women" for the representatives of labour and social welfare agencies started in Ferghana on July 25.
The training organizers are a UNDP project "Promotion of the rights of women migrant workers" and the Women's Committee of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Uzreport Information Portal reported.
The training is aimed at providing participants with information on basic definitions on migration, international experiences, regulation mechanisms and the institutes of migration process as well as teach them basic skills and methods of migration process regulations, gathering, analyzing and evaluation data.
Training participants looked into practice of migration process and coordination of activities of state and local administrative agencies in regulation of labour migration. They also received materials, reflecting contemporary migration processes, including legal and illegal migration, schemes for territorial movement of population, main trends of migration in Uzbekistan.
"A number of migrating women had been on rise and reached nearly 50% of all labour migrants in the world. Also, a number of "independent" female migrants has also increased. Abundance of labour resources in some regions has been caused by demographic factors and resulted in a tough competition in labour market. Women often lose such competition to men. This prompts women to seek employment outside the main residence area", one of the trainers, Abduhalil Rakhmonov, said.
The training in Ferghana will be followed by trainings in the Jizzakh and Tashkent regions.
The trainings has been conducted to execute the Law of Uzbekistan "On fighting human trafficking" dated 17 April 2008 and the National Action Plan on improving efficiency of combating human trafficking in 2008-2010.
The main objective of the Project is to improve protection of human rights of the women involved in labor migration and to increase the quality of services provided by relevant government and nongovernmental bodies to women migrant workers and victims of human trafficking.
SAMARKAND-BASED HOSPITAL ACQUIRES LATEST EQUIPMENT
The central hospital of Samarkand City Medical Union has been supplied with the new equipment for conducting the ultrasound examination. With using the said equipment the doctors will be able to diagnose about hundred diseases of the patient.
“Thanks to the attention paid by the government and considerable reforms being accomplished in the sphere of healthcare, the material and technical basis of medical treatment establishments is being bettered,” Matlyuba Turdieva, head of the Samarkand City Medical Union, has said.
She also said that in particular, thanks to implementation of the programs on reforming the healthcare system we have accomplished the tangible volume of works on repairing and reconstructing the hospitals and polyclinics in the city for over the last years. The latest medical equipment has been installed. This year the city hospital alone has received various equipments from Russia, Germany and Italy.
Thus, using the newest medical device, which has been installed at the endo-surgery department the physicians got an opportunity to carry out difficult surgical operations, diagnose and reveal changes in the blood circulatory system.