JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Zhuhai Singyes Green Building Technology, a Chinese company, won a tender at the end of 2016 to build a solar panel field in southern Uzbekistan, state-run Uzbekenergo told the Trend news agency. Uzbekistan has been looking to boost its renewable energy capacity and has been increasingly turning to solar power.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish police captured the main suspect, an Uzbek national called Abdulkadir Masharipov, behind a New Year’s eve attack on an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people. Masharipov has, reportedly, already confessed to the killings. The Turkish authorities said that he had received training from the IS radical militant group.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan cancelled plans to drop visa requirements for tourists only a few weeks after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev surprised people by promising to open up the notoriously hard-to-enter country.
The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that Uzbekistan’s official legislation website had published a document delaying by four years the introduction of the visa-free regime for tourists. The document had been signed Mr Mirziyoyev.
In December he had said that tourists from Western countries would be allowed to enter the country for up to 30 days without a visa.
Kate Mallinson, a London-based Central Asia analyst, said that the change of plan on the tourists’ visa- free regime hinted at a power struggle within the Uzbek system.
“The Uzbek government’s volte face on allowing visa free entry highlights the continuing leverage of the hidden state and all-powerful security services, the SNB,” she said.
“The SNB fiercely scrutinises entry of foreigners into the country and will have challenged this move which would have significantly undermined its control.”
Uzbekistan has one of the most tightly controlled visa regimes in the world.
Mr Mirziyoyev’s move to relax it appeared linked to the increased openness after the death in September of Pres. Islam Karimov. Karimov had ruled since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and was regarded by many as a harsh autocrat.
Since taking over as president, Mr Mirziyoyev has improved ties with Uzbekistan’s neighbours and promised to improve the country’s business environment.
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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)
JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Turkey named the suspected gunman who killed 39 people at a nightclub in Istanbul on New Years Eve as Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national. They said that he had links with IS in Iraq and Syria and that he has been living in Turkey since 2011. The accusation once again pulls Central Asia into the spotlight over IS recruitment in the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)
JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan Airways has bought four more Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner aircrafts for an undisclosed amount to be delivered in 2019 and 2020, media reported. The Dreamliner is a long-haul aircraft that came into production 10 years ago. Uzbekistan has been trying to boost its airline and market itself as a stopover between the West and East Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)
DEC. 24/25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev visited Tashkent, a symbolic trip which highlighted the vast improvement in relations between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan since Islam Karimov died in September. The neighbours have been close to war but since Karimov died, Uzbek officials have appeared to change their previously antagonistic stance towards Kyrgyzstan over disputed border areas.
DEC. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has unblocked news websites which have been banned for years, another sign, perhaps, of improving media and human rights in the country since the death of Islam Karimov in September. The unblocked websites include the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Eurasianet, Ferghana.ru, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
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(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)
DEC. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon has invited his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Dushanbe, media reported, another major step towards normalising ties between the two neighbours after more than two decades of frosty relations. Since Mr Mirziyoyev took over as Uzbekistan’s leader in September, Uzbekistan has looked to improve relations with its neighbours.
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(News report from Issue No. 311, published on Jan. 6 2017)
DEC. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s Singyes Solar Technologies won a contract to design, build and operate a 100MW solar farm in Uzbekistan, media reported. The $147m project, located near Samarkand, is the biggest overseas project won by Singyes. State- owned Uzbekenergo is the client, although the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the main financier of the project. The ADB wants Uzbekistan to generate more of its power via renewable energy.
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(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)
DEC. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Seoul, Uzbek deputy PM Rustam Azimov met with his South Korean counterpart and agreed an increase in an economic loan to Uzbekistan from South Korea to $400m from $250m. The loan has been specifically earmarked to build a new passenger terminal at Tashkent airport and to build a new data centre. South Korea has built up links with Uzbekistan through business deals.
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(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)