Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Uzbek authorities crackdown on money changers

MARCH 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan are trying to crackdown on Black Market money changers, the Eurasianet website reported. It described a raid by both undercover and uniformed police on money changers outside a major Tashkent supermarket. Under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in power since September, the Uzbek authorities have managed a careful devaluation of the som currency. The crackdown on the once thriving som Black Market, appears designed to coincide with this devaluation.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

OSCE reveals final report on elections in Uzbekistan

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MARCH 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its final report on the Uzbek presidential elections in December, the OSCE’s ODHIR laid out 24 points where Uzbekistan could improve its electoral system. It said these were aimed at improving the system’s transparency and strengthening the confidence ordinary people have in the process, as well as stopping fraud and ensuring there is genuine competition. The election was the first that ODHIR, the OSCE’s election monitoring unit, had observed in Uzbekistan. Its broad assessment was that the process had been flawed.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Uzbek president’s first 100 days in power

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MARCH 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> What is the International Crises Group and why is it important to discuss its report on the first 100 days of Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s rule in Uzbekistan?

>> The International Crisis Group, or ICG, is a think tank based in Brussels. It draws most of its funding from Western governments and reports on some of the world’s long-running problem areas. It is influential. One of the areas it reports on is Central Asia and this report, on Mirziyoyev’s first 100 days as Uzbek president, is one of the first major efforts to evaluate his influence over the region’s most populous country.

>>How does the ICG view Mirziyoyev?

>>Essentially, positive with a strong dose of caution. Like others, the ICG welcomed moves by Mirziyoyev to improve relations with neighbours and has also said there are signs he wants to change the economy which has operated under a pseudo-Soviet centrally controlled system since the 1992 break up of the USSR. But the report’s authors also sounded a serious, and wise, note of caution. They pointed out that Mirziyoyev had been PM under Islam Karimov when the current system, designed to protect the elite, was devised.

>> Got it. What, according to ICG, are the most serious issues facing Mirziyoyev?

>> To start with, the ICG said that Mirziyoyev needs to shore up support within the ranks of the Uzbek elite. Without this support he will fail to update the system. It pointed to a government reshuffle at the start of the year which had improved things but said that he still needed to patch up his differences with Rustam Azimov, an ex-finance minister, and Rustam Inoyatov, the head of the National Security Service.

>> What about ordinary Uzbeks? Does ICG have any insight on how they view their new president?

>> Only a smattering of anecdotal evidence that suggests that Mirziyoyev is going about things the right way and that he has started out with a degree of popularity. ICG quoted a 55-year-old teacher in the Fergana Valley saying: “Mirziyoyev is a person who knows Uzbekistan’s real picture, he can make things better.”

>> And to sum up?

>> The ICG broadly welcomed Mirziyoyev’s first 100 days in office, although it also said that more is needed. It did urge foreign powers to work more closely with Uzbekistan under Mirziyoyev to ensure reforms that have been hinted at come through and don’t become early-day regime hubris.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Uzbek president travels to Astana to meet Nazarbayev

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ALMATY, MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a high-spirited and carefully choreographed meeting in Astana, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev lauded what they said would be a fruitful and fulfilling partnership between the two neighbours.

The meeting was important as it marks another genuine shift in diplomatic relations for Uzbekistan. Under Mr Mirziyoyev, Uzbek diplomats have been working hard to shake off their difficult image and to repair damage inflicted during the cantankerous 25 year rule of Islam Karimov.

“Kazakhstan wishes our strategic partner, neighbour and brotherly people of Uzbekistan, prosperity and well-being,” the Kazakh presidential website quoted Mr Nazarbayev as saying. “In the future, we look forward to a fruitful relationship in the framework of bilateral contacts.”

The diplomatic and economic relationship between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the most populous and wealthy countries in the region, is vital for Central Asia. If they work in harmony, then the other three coun- tries of the region will also prosper. If they squabble, as has been the case, then economic development will be slow.

This was the two leaders first meeting since September 2016 when Mr Nazarbayev travelled to see Karimov’s grave in Samarkand. Mr Mirziyoyev had then been acting president. He was officially sworn in as Uzbekistan’s second post-Soviet president in December.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Prosecutors look at ING role in Uzbekistan telecom bribes

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MARCH 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — ING, one of the Netherlands’ biggest bank, became the second international bank to be placed under investigation over alleged links to money laundering by the Uzbek government.

Earlier this year prosecutors in Switzerland said that they had started an investigation into the role played by Lombard Odier, a Geneva-based private bank, in a series of bribes paid by European telecoms firms for access to Uzbekistan’s potentially lucrative mobile market.

In a statement, the Dutch prosecution service said: “The bank [ING] is suspected of having failed to report, or report in a timely fashion, irregular transactions. It is suspected of having enabled international corruption and money laundering.”

A spokesman for ING said that the company couldn’t make specific comments about an ongoing investigation other than to say that it was cooperating with the authorities.

Media reports said that the investigation will focus on a $184m payment made in 2007/8 by Netherlands-based Vimpelcom via ING to a Gibraltar-registered company owned by an associate of Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of former Uzbek president Islam Karimov. This was allegedly part of a larger bribe that Vimpelcom has already admitted paying to the Karimovs, then the unrivalled First Family of Uzbekistan, for access to the 35m-person market. Last year Vimpelcom paid a $795m fine for the bribe, the second largest fine for corruption in Western corporate history.

The discovery in 2012 by Western media of the bribes has already destroyed the careers of high-flying telecoms executives and persuaded both Sweden’s Telia and Norway’s Telenor to sell out of the Central Asia/South Caucasus market, which they have said they believe is riddled through with corruption.

It was also part of the undoing of the Karimovs’ grip on power in Uzbekistan.

Ms Karimova, had appeared set on succeeding her father as Uzbekistan’s president. She had styled herself as a glamorous multi-talented pop-singer, fashion-designer, captain-of-industry and Uzbek ambassador to the UN but her enemies swooped when the scale of her corruption became apparent.

Already unpopular in Uzbekistan, she was placed under house arrest in 2014 when she return to Tashkent and has barely been seen or heard of since. Her associates were arrested and convicted of various financial crimes.

When her father died in September, Ms Karimova was even prevented from attending his funeral in Samarkand.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Fruit exports to Kazakhstan to increase

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MARCH 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is looking to boost the value of its fruit exports to Kazakhstan by 30% to $410m this year, media reported quoting Uzbekzokovaktovholding, the state- linked holding company. The 2017 target is an indication of the improved relations between Uzbekistan and its neighbours since Pres. Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over from Islam Karimov in September.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

EBRD to start lending to Uzbekistan after decade-long break

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MARCH 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD rounded off a visit to Uzbekistan by promising to invest in the country for the first time in a decade, giving Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev a major boost.

EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti flew to Tashkent to meet Mr Mirziyoyev to discuss the terms of the return, a decade on since a row over human rights scuppered relations.

In a statement, the EBRD said that it was looking forward to helping to give private enterprise a boost and to help open up the country after years of isolation under Islam Karimov.

“I am delighted that the EBRD is re-engaging with Uzbekistan. These discussions have been highly fruitful and there is great interest on both sides in reinvigorating the relationship between the Bank and Uzbekistan,” the EBRD quoted Mr Chakrabarti in a press release.

“This is a new beginning in EBRD- Uzbek relations.”

It is only seven months since the death of Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan for 25 years, but already Mr Mirziyoyev has attracted much needed investment into the country. Earlier this month Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao visited Uzbekistan and promised to lend $573m to fund four projects, including a scheme to fund small businesses in rural areas.

Funding from institutional banks such as the EBRD and the ADB have been instrumental in helping Central Asia’s economies develop. The EBRD phased out its involvement in Uzbekistan gradually after it held its 2003 AGM in Tashkent. That meeting was marked by a row between Uzbekistan and the EBRD over media freedom and prisoners’ rights. The relationship never recovered during Karimov’s lifetime and the EBRD’s last investment in Uzbekistan was in 2007.

As a comparison, the EBRD said that it has invested €11.6b into Central Asia. Of this, Uzbekistan, where roughly half of Central Asia’s population live, received €894m. That’s roughly 8% of the total.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

China eyes up investment in Uzbek gas field

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China is eyeing up a major investment in a gas field in southern Uzbekistan, media reported. The gas field is operated by the Uzbek-Chinese JV New Silk Road Oil & Gas Company, which is likely to contract China’s state-run CNPC to develop the site, funded by loans from China. China has been pushing hard to expand its project portfolio inside Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

ODIHR chief flies to Uzbekistan

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Michael Georg, head of the OSCE’s election monitoring unit ODIHR, travelled to Tashkent for a meeting with the Uzbek foreign ministry on its findings from its election monitoring mission in December. The meeting is likely to precede a final election monitoring report from ODIHR. The elections last December were the first time that ODIHR had monitored an election in Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Uzbek Central Bank issues new banknote

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MARCH 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Central Bank printed its first 10,000 som banknote, an official nod, perhaps, to high levels of inflation and the falling value of its currency. At today’s official exchange rate of 3,453/$1, the new note will be worth just under $3. The Central Bank introduced the 5,000 som banknote in 2013 and the 1,000 som banknote in 2001. Uzbekistan’s economy has been under pressure, pushing up inflation and devaluing its currency. The som has fallen by 13% since August.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)