JAN. 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will set up a new bank called Uzagroexportbank to support agriculture and farm exports, media reported. The new bank is another signal that new president Shavkat Mirziyoyev is trying to boost support for independent businesses. Analysts have previously identified agriculture as a way to boost Uzbekistan’s productivity.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)
JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The CEO of Swedish mobile operator Telia, Johan Dennelind, said that he was confident that he would be able to sell off the company’s remaining assets in its Eurasia region this year. Interest in Telia’s regional asset which include Azercell, Geocell, Ucell, Kcell and Tcell have been light. A corruption scandal in Uzbekistan, linked to a 2008 bribe, triggered the sale.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)
JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Since the beginning of September, the Uzbek som has dropped from an official rate of just under 3,000/$1 to around 3,265/$1 – a fall in value of nearly 9%.
It’s a tightly managed currency and, straight away it needs to be pointed out that the unofficial black market rate for the som is around a third cheaper, but this managed devaluation is still important. Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan since 1991, died at the beginning of September and since then the devaluation of the som as accelerated. The graph shows this inflection point.
New Uzbek president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, gas said that he wants to promote personal liberties in Uzbekistan. This attitude has also extended to liberalising currency controls and Mr Mirziyoyev has talked about making it easier for ordinary Uzbeks and companies to take money out of the country. He may also want to reduce the price of an overvalued som more quickly than his predecessor.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov led a delegation to Kabul to sign a trade declaration that both sides said should lift bilateral trade to $1.5b. The deal highlights improved trade relations between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, something that both sides have been working towards.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)f
JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A presidential decree in Uzbekistan appeared to suggest that the hated exit visas that ordinary Uzbeks need to be able to leave the country may be scrapped.
If the decree becomes law, it will herald one of the biggest changes in the way that Uzbekistan is governed and change the power and control the authorities can impose over people.
The scrapping of exit visas was just one section of a long document which focused on relaxing identification and travel documents. It said that a decision would be made by the third quarter of 2017. There was no timetable, though, on when it would be implemented.
Government officials later tried to row back on the prospect of the authorities relaxing their grip over ordinary people.
The US-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that its journalists had spoken to several officials at the interior ministry who emphasised that the plan was just a proposal and may not be adopted.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s foreign minister issued a statement complaining about a press release by Tajikistan which said that it wanted to build a railway link to Russia that bypassed Turkmenistan and instead traversed Uzbekistan. The Turkmen statement said that Tajikistan’s press release had been unethical. Uzbek-Tajik relations have improved markedly since the death in September of former Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov. The Turkmen diplomatic note is a reminder the ties between Central Asian countries are often strained and fractured.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In possibly the biggest mass amnesty by a former Soviet state, Uzbekistan pardoned 40,000 prisoners. The amnesty focused on inmates imprisoned for minor crimes, foreigners, women, young offenders and people over the age of 60. Human rights groups accuse Uzbekistan of locking up political prisoners. No notable political prisoners were released. Central Asian countries use amnesties to mark anniversaries and to release pressure on their prison populations.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Eriell GmbH, an Austria-registered company whose biggest shareholder is Gazprombank, has bought a 51% stake in Sarbon-Neftegaz from the state-owned Uzbekenergo, the Tashkent stock exchange reported. The Italian-language agcnews.eu website said that Eriell had paid $3.94m for the stake. Sarbon-Neftegaz provides transport services to oil and gas companies in Uzbekistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek prosecutors interviewed Gulnara Karimova at her home in Tashkent, where she is under house arrest, about money laundering, media in Switzerland reported by quoting her lawyer.
This is the first news of Ms Karimova since her father, former Uzbek president Islam Karimov, died in September. In November a report surfaced on opposition news website that she had been poisoned.
The German-language business newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung published an interview with Ms Karimova’s lawyer, Gregoire Mangeat, who said that he had flown to Tashkent for the interviews held on Dec. 9/10.
He said that she was in good health but had been under pressure from the two state prosecutors to admit to various crimes.
“She was very combative and showed an amazing resistance to the arbitrary situation,” he said. “She bravely endured the confrontation with the three Uzbek prosecutors in military uniform. Twice, however, she burst into tears.”
Mr Mangeat also said that Ms Karimova’s living conditions were inhumane and designed to make her crack.
“My client is held in a small annex of her former house in the centre of Tashkent. The rest of the house has decayed,” her said. “Gulnara Karimova is completely isolated.”
Ms Karimova had been viewed as a potential successor to her father but in February 2014, as prosecutors from Europe and the United States started investigating telecoms companies who had paid her bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars for access to the Uzbek market, she was placed under house arrest. Since then, very little has been heard of the once self-style fashion diva, pop star, roaming ambassador and business leader.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin pulled off one of the biggest upsets in international tennis when he beat world no. 2 Novak Djokovic 3-2 in the second round of the Australian Open. Istomin is ranked at 117 in the world.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)