DEC. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan remains one of the most corrupt countries on the plant. In its 2013 index, the anti-corruption lobby group Transparency International ranked Uzbekistan at 168th position alongside Turkmenistan and Syria. Only a selection of war ravished and awkward countries, including Afghanistan and North Korea, rank lower.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The media lobby group Reporters Without Borders handed its 2013 press freedom award to imprisoned Uzbek journalist Muhammad Bekzhanov. Bekzhanov edited an opposition newspaper until he was imprisoned in 1999 for plotting to a series of terrorist attacks.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
DEC. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tax inspectors in Uzbekistan have surprised observers by apparently pulling back from prosecuting Russia’s VimpelCom for tax evasion.
A report by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti quoted a source from the Uzbek tax committee as saying that a two-month long investigation had found no violations.
“The inspection is complete. The company has received a resolution with some criticism but no violations of the tax legislation have been found,” an unnamed source at the Uzbek tax authorities told RIA-Novosti.
This will come as a relief to VimpelCom executives who must have feared at one point that they would be going the way of their Russian rival MTS which had to quit Uzbekistan earlier this year after a similar tax case ended in charges.
VimpelCom operates in Uzbekistan under its Beeline brand name. With roughly 55% of the country’s 19m mobile users, it is the largest mobile provider in Uzbekistan.
No details of why tax inspectors dropped the case against VimpelCom have been released.
No doubt there were behind-the-scenes negotiations between VimpelCom and the Uzbek authorities and between Russian and Uzbek officials, but we don’t know the details of what was agreed. Throughout, VimpelCom have denied the charges and said that it is the victim of an elaborate shake-down by the authorities, something they are renowned for.
Regardless, it will be a relief for investors in Uzbekistan generally. They have increasingly complained of Uzbekistan’s difficult business climate.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek authorities have tightened rules on private banking and money wiring. As of Nov. 25, Uzbek banks are now required to establish the identity of citizens exchanging $4,000, a tenth of the previously allowed amount.
Also, the new rules reduce to a total of $17,000 in three consecutive months the maximum amount people can wire without being considered as suspicious.
The authorities have said new regulations are part of efforts to combat terrorism financing and money laundering.
The timing, though, appears pertinent. Gulnara Karimova, the embattled eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, recently touched upon the money laundering issues on her Twitter page.
She said the Tashkent-based Asia Alliance Bank, established in August 2009, holds all of Uzbekistan’s assets and that this bank was set up specifically to launder money.
It’s important to note, though, that no formal charges have ever been levied at Asia Alliance Bank.
Ms Karimova, though, must tread carefully on money laundering. The French authorities currently have an ongoing case against her.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov visited Tashkent for talks with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov. Mr Berdymukhamedov is a relatively well-travelled leader but visits to other Central Asian countries are still rare. His visit showed that Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan relations are strong.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan clearly wants to burnish its solar power credentials.
It has discussed these credentials at length since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and now appears to be taking a major step towards realising them.
The president of the Asia Development Bank, Takehiko Nakao, said that it had agreed a $110m loan to help finance the construction of a solar panel park near Samarkand. The Uzbek government has agreed to spend another $190m on the project.
The plan is to cover an area roughly the size of 560 football pitches (soccer pitches for our American readers) with solar panels.
It’s certainly ambitious, and so it should be. Sun drenches Uzbekistan for most of the year making it a good bet for solar power.
Solar power represents part of the answer to Uzbekistan’s power problems but only if the authorities don’t sell the electricity that the site generates abroad.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The fall from favour of Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, continued.
Ms Karimova closed her charity the Forum for Culture and Art of Uzbekistan a few days after financial police started investigating it for irregularities and then posted a twitter tirade against her mother.
Commentators and analysts around the world have been trying to decipher what Ms Karimova’s woes mean. Below is a round-up of their opinions:
Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Center in Moscow, said: “Such treatment for Gulnara is hardly possible without being sanctioned by Islam Karimov. There could be two possibilities here. First, the actions of the oldest daughter have placed Karimov’s regime in jeopardy and he has made a decision to rein her in. Secondly, Gulnara has presidential aspirations in light of her father’s old age.”
The Uzbek language BBC quoted Kamoliddin Rabbimov, an Uzbek political scientist, who said that Ms Karimova attempts to bolster her position had ended in disaster. He said: “President Karimov was personally angry with her and ordered the closure of Gulnara Karimova’s media outlets, her Twitter account and other online webpages.”
An unnamed Western official told the New York Times: “Gulnara is probably the person Karimov loves most because she looks like him and is very smart but he is capable of turning on his daughter. He is not the only one on Earth that fits in that category, but he is certainly in that category.”
Alex Nice, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that rival businessmen had grown weary of Ms Karimova. He told the Guardian: “Karimova’s business interests and ambition grew too large; they started to encroach on the interests of other powerful players and at some point they decided to clip her wings.”
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank unveiled plans to build a solar panel plant in Uzbekistan the size of 560 football pitches. If successful, the plant could become an important source of energy for Uzbekistan which experiences regular shortages.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, closed her charity the Forum for Culture and Art of Uzbekistan after financial police in Uzbekistan raided it. The closure is more evidence of a power struggle in Uzbekistan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have ordered residents of Tashkent to use wood as fuel to combat energy shortages, Uzbek media reported. According to one website, the order has sent wood prices in Tashkent rocketing. People in Uzbekistan have been experiencing shortages of gas and electricity for months.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)