Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Coronavirus spreads through Central Asia and South Caucasus

YEREVAN/March 26 (The Bulletin) — The Covid-19 virus started to take a grip of the Central Asia and South Caucasus region with only Tajikistan and Turkmenistan not reporting any outbreaks.

Worst hit, by some margin, has been Armenia with 290 cases reported by March 26. Officials said that the source of the outbreak was a sewing factory in Yerevan and people arriving from Iran, which has had one of the worst outbreaks in the world.

From sounding blase about the impact of the coronavirus only two weeks ago, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has now ordered a lockdown along the same lines as European countries, which is hitting businesses.

“Let’s look at the upcoming week as a unique opportunity to read, self-reflect and plan the future of the Armenian nation,” he said.

Neighbouring Georgia and Azerbaijan have also reported cases of the coronavirus, 77 cases and 80 cases each, but have taken different approaches to dealing with it. The Georgian government has imposed a lockdown in Tbilisi but in Azerbaijan the rules are more relaxed.

In Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have imposed lockdowns over their largest cities to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, although Turkmen and Tajik officials have insisted, much to the amazement of many analysts, that they haven’t had any cases.

On March 21, Tajik towns hosted the traditional celebrations to mark the Persian new year Nowruz festival and Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has talked up the medicinal benefits of various herbs against the coronavirus.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Coronavirus hit will drag down the Uzbek economy

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MARCH 26 (The Bulletin) — The spread of the coronavirus, the global lockdown and the collapse of the travel tourism industry will hit Uzbekistan hard, at least in 2020. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has worked to open up the country over the past four years and has placed large emphasis on pulling in Western tourists.

The tourist season should be about to kick-off instead, some of the country’s biggest sites are empty.

Mr Mirziyoyev has also ordered the government to borrow $1b to try to help businesses recover from the impact of the coronavirus. The Uzbek justice ministry said that the country’s GDP growth for 2020 was likely to be 3.7%, compared to an earlier estimate of 5.5%.

The Uzbek Central Bank has said that businesses will also have an extended period to pay back any loans and told credit organisations to be lenient with its debt collecting.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan reports 65 cases of the coronavirus

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MARCH 26 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek officials had reported 65 cases of the coronavirus by March 26 and imposed a lockdown on three cities — Tashkent, Namangan and Andijan. A state-of-emergency has been declared, giving the police far-reaching powers. Borders have been closed and public transport systems have also been shut down.

The government has also banned all events with more than 10 people.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan tweaks hated registration system

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MARCH 19 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s government unveiled a new registration system for people wanting to live and work in Tashkent which will replace the Soviet ‘propiska’ system that was so hateD. The ‘propiska’ system made it expensive, time-consuming and complicated for people to move to Tashkent from regional Uzbekistan. Earlier this year, the government said that it wanted to change this system. Now it has published a new set of rules which will force people moving to Tashkent to register with the police, as before, but also allow them to roll over temporary permits more easily. The Uzbek government wants to liberalise Soviet control systems.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbek court sends Karimova to prison for another 8 years

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MARCH 18 (The Bulletin) — A court in Uzbekistan found Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of former Uzbek president Islam Karimov and previously considered the most powerful woman in the country, guilty of corruption that cost the country $2.3b and sentenced her to another eight years in prison. Karimova has been under house arrest and then in prison in Tashkent since 2014 when she was accused of taking bribes from telecoms companies looking to do business in Uzbekistan. In an open letter to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev earlier this year, she had begged to be released from prison. Five other people were also imprisoned alongside Karimova.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

World Bank approves $239m funds to build improved water system

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MARCH 13 (The Bulletin) — The World Bank approved a $239m credit line to Uzbekistan to help build improved water services. The World Bank country manager in Uzbekistan, Hideki Mori, said that 500,000 people will have improved water supplies in Uzbekistan after this project is completed. The project is focused on the remote Uzbek region of Karakalpakstan and around the town of Samarkand.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan registers first local NGO for 17 years

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MARCH 11 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has registered its first local human rights groups since 2003, Steve Swerdlow of the New York-based Human Rights Group said. He said that Huquqi Tayanch, which means legal support in Uzbek, had been registered as an NGO on March 9 and that Mercy Corps, a US NGO focused on poverty relief, was registered on March 11.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Human Rights Watch says Uzbekistan is still ‘authoritarian’

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MARCH 1 2020 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that although Uzbekistan has made some progress on improving its human rights record since Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president in 2016, it is still an authoritarian government where “many promising reforms continue to exist only on paper”. It said that thousands of people were still in detention on politically motivated charges and that the media was continually repressed.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan wants to sell stake in giant state-owned gold producer

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TASHKENT/Feb. 28 2020 (The Bulletin) — — Uzbekistan said that it wanted to push through the most ambitious sell-off of state assets in Central Asia within the next five years.

Included in its list of assets for sale are a 10% stake in gold producer Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant, a 49% stake in Uzbekistan Airways and a 24% in the Uzbekneftegaz. It will also sell stakes in 1,000 businesses that are fully or part-owned by the government, including all of Uzbekistan’s vegetable oil producers and its alcohol distillers.

Perhaps the most eye-catching of these potential privatisations is the prospect of investors taking a 10% stake in the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant. The Soviet-era plant is the single biggest industrial project in Uzbekistan, accounting for around 10% of Uzbekistan’s GDP. It also sucks up 18% of the government’s revenues and employs 54,000 people, according to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

“By the volume of raw materials, the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant is the third gold producer in the world. However, the value of its assets is much less than similar companies abroad,” the Uzbek government said in a statement.

“At present, the book value of NMMP is estimated at $1.3b, while the market price of comparable foreign enterprises is $11b.” And it is this perceived undervaluation that the Uzbek government wants to address with a privatisation programme.

The government’s statement said that it wanted to increase output at the plant to 94 tonnes by 2026 by implementing 40 projects worth $4b and the development of a new gold field at a cost of $525m.

Since Mr Mirziyoyev took over from Islam Karimov in 2016, he has pushed to open business to investors.

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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Gulnara Karimova begs for her freedom

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FEB. 26 2020 (The Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former leader Islam Karimov and once considered to be one of the most powerful people in the country, wrote an open letter to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev begging to be released from prison. She said that for freedom, which she said she needed on health grounds, she would drop objections to Uzbekistan’s efforts to repatriate $686m of her assets from Switzerland.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin