September 07, 2009
Politics:
President receives head of MAN
Economics:
Uzbek-Chinese business forum held in Tashkent
Rural housing exhibition to open on September 7
MAN Nutzfahrzeuge and Uzavtosanoat found joint venture in Uzbekistan
SamRosKholod JV opens in Gulabad
Society:
National passport system improving
New educational institutions open in Khorezm
POLICY
PRESIDENT RECEIVES HEAD OF MAN
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov received the chairman of the executive board of MAN group of companies Hakan Samuelsson at Oqsaroy residence in Tashkent on September 4.
“Establishment of cooperation between MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG and Uzavtosanoat demonstrates the interest of the MAN group of companies that you head to the automobile industry of our country,” Islam Karimov said, National News Agency UzA reported.
The joint venture MAN Auto-Uzbekistan set up on the territory of the Samarkand automobile plant SamAvto started assembly of MAN trucks on September 4.
At the first stage, the new company plans producing the most required models of trucks with various carrying capacity for the oil and gas, road building, mining and other sectors of the economy.
Despite the world economic crisis, these sectors in Uzbekistan are showing dynamic growth of production, expansion of infrastructure and increasing demand for automobiles.
The production capacity of JV MAN Auto-Uzbekistan will made up over 2,000 units per year, which will initially be produced in cooperation with SamAvto.
MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG through its distributors in the CIS plans exporting the production of MAN Auto-Uzbekistan.
At the meeting with the President of Uzbekistan, Hakan Samuelsson said MAN was interested in expansion of cooperation with Uzavtosanoat.
The sides considered issues of development of relations between the automobile producing enterprises of Uzbekistan and MAN, as well as implementation of new joint projects.
ECONOMY
UZBEK-CHINESE BUSINESS FORUM HELD IN TASHKENT
The forum of business circles of Uzbekistan and China took place in Tashkent on 7 September. The event was organized by the Ministry of foreign economic relations, investments and trade, and the Commerce and industry chamber of Uzbekistan jointly with the Trade chamber for export and import of machinery and technical products of China.
Heads of ministries, departments and companies working in foreign trade, investments, fuel and energy, banking and finance, construction, machinery building, agriculture, food, chemical, light, textile, healthcare, transport, IT, logistics, tourism and other sectors took part in the forum.
The Chinese businessmen were provided with information on the priority directions of attraction of investments in Uzbekistan. They also got acquainted with the privatization process in Uzbekistan, reforms in various sectors of the economy and the opportunities in the free industrial economic zone Navoi.
In total, about 100 representatives of more than 50 large Chinese companies participated in the business forum.
China is one of Uzbekistan’s largest trade and economic partners. In 2008 trade turnover between the two states increased 43.4% compared to 2007 to USD 1.3 billion. In the first half of 2009, the figure already comprised USD 1.2 billion.
Almost 270 Uzbek-Chinese joint ventures operate in Uzbekistan, 44 of which were set up with 100% Chinese capital.
These companies function in the areas of light and textile industry, agricultural products processing, investments and trade.
Besides, 46 Chinese companies, including the leading ones, have their representative offices in Uzbekistan.
RURAL HOUSING EXHIBITION TO OPEN ON 7 SEPTEMBER
The Uzexpocenter will host a specialized exhibition of rural individual housing projects and construction materials during 7-10 September.
The event is being organized in the framework of the state program Year of Rural Development and Improvement.
It aims at improving the living conditions of the rural residents on the basis of building uniform and specialists-approved individual housing and social objects, according to UzA.
The exhibition is expected to attract producers of construction materials and equipment, architectural and design companies.
The participants will present the typical projects of rural houses and objects of social and industrial infrastructure, which comply with the latest requirements of architecture and design.
The projects have been developed by the new project institute Qishloqqirulishloyiha with consideration of the use of modern building materials and technologies, as well as the local climatic conditions and peculiarities of various regions of Uzbekistan.
MAN NUTZFAHRZEUGE AND UZAVTOSANOAT FOUND JOINT VENTURE IN UZBEKISTAN
Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN SE Hakan Samuelsson and Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Uzavtosanoat Ulugbek Rozukulov on September 4 signed the agreements on founding the joint venture company MAN AUTO-Uzbekistan.
Under the agreement, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge holds 49% of shares in the joint venture, while Uzavtosanoat holds 51% and thus bears responsibility for management of the new company, Uzreport Information Portal reported.
The joint venture will import components for heavy trucks from the MAN TGA and CLA ranges from Germany and India respectively into Uzbekistan, where they will be assembled. Production of 500 to 1,000 vehicles per year is planned. The trucks will be sold and serviced via a network of independent dealers.
"We are pleased to have found in Uzavtosanoat a partner who knows the markets of Central Asia well and is competent in the production and sale of commercial vehicles. For MAN this commitment in Uzbekistan is a further example of our international presence in new markets," said Hakan Samuelsson at the signing of the agreements. He went on to add that partnerships in economically thriving regions are essential to MAN's future alignment.
"We are firmly convinced that our partnership with MAN will be successful. MAN's technologically mature and robust vehicles exactly match the demands of customers in Uzbekistan and surrounding markets. Central Asia's markets are buoyant," said Ulugbek Rozukulov, underlining the prospects for the MAN AUTO-Uzbekistan joint venture.
Based in Munich, Germany, the MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group is the largest company in the MAN Group and one of the leading international providers of efficient commercial vehicles and innovative transport solutions. In fiscal year 2008 the company, with some 36,000 employees, generated a turnover of 10.6 billion euros with sales of more than 96,000 trucks and over 7,200 buses and bus chassis under the MAN and NEOPLAN brands.
SAMROSKHOLOD JV OPENS IN GULABAD
Uzbek-Russian joint venture SamRosKholod opened in Gulabad village of Samarkand district.
The company specializes on storage of fruit and vegetables and production of packaging.
The investments in the joint venture exceeded USD 1 million. SamRosKholod capacities allow storing 5,000 tons of fruit and vegetables.
“Previously locally produced fruit and vegetables used to be stores at warehouses. Now farmers can store them for a significantly longer time,” A.Sharapov, company head, said.
“This will allow supplying fresh products to the population in the winter and spring months,” he added.
SOCIETY
NATIONAL PASSPORT SYSTEM IMPROVING
Uzbekistan has started activities to introduce biometric passports, which should appear in the country from next year. As reported earlier, President Islam Karimov signed a decree on 23 June 2009 on improving the passport system in the country.
The resolution of the Montreal Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of 2004 states that its member countries should not later than 2010 introduce civil passports with electronic carrier containing personal information about biometric parameters and identifying information of the owners, and having a high degree of protection.
Passports with biometric data are introduced to increase the safety of the international civil air navigation, enhance the security of identity documents against possible counterfeiting, improve mechanisms for rapid and accurate identification when crossing the state border, and raise the quality and efficiency of international air transportations.
Passports with biometric parameters, manufactured using modern information technologies, have already been introduced in many countries.
According to deputy head of Entry/exit and citizenship department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alisher Toshmetov, the respective bodies have examined the experience of foreign countries that have already introduced passport with electronic information.
The plan of introduction of biometric passports consists of two stages. At the first stage (during 2010) the new passports will be issued to employees of ministries and state departments, as well as individuals traveling or residing abroad, and citizens receiving or changing their passports.
On stage two (2011-2015) all other citizens of Uzbekistan will be provided with new passports.
To obtain a new passport, citizens should apply to the territorial internal affairs departments at the place of their permanent residence, while citizens living abroad should contact consular offices of the Foreign Ministry.
Their applications and data are then sent to the National Personalization Center, which , prepares biometric passports.
To date, all entry/exit and citizenship departments across the country have allocated special rooms for staff working with biometric passports and are being provided with required equipment and inventory.
The existing citizen’s passports were introduced in Uzbekistan on 1 January 1995.
NEW EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OPEN IN KHOREZM
On the eve of the new academic year, new educational institutions opened in Khorezm region.
One of such institutions is academic lyceum No.3 for 800 students at Urgench State University.
The lyceum has laboratories, a gym, and an information resource center with more than 2,000 titles of literature.
In Uzbkeistan village of Shavat district, 270 students started education at a new professional college specializing in agriculture.
The college teaches classes like servicing agricultural machinery and equipment, running farms, accounting, producing textile products and others.
The institution has a large gym, a canteen, an information resource center and a dormitory for 50 students.