Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Utility prices to rise in Uzbekistan

SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government said it would increase all utility prices from Oct 1, a decision prompted by the regional economic malaise.

The state water supply company said drinking water rates would increase by 8% and hot water by 5% in Tashkent; electricity prices will increase by 8%; gas prices by 7.3%.

The announcements will pile extra pressure onto ordinary people who are already dealing with price inflation for food and petrol as well as a drop in their own spending power because of a major fall in remittances.

Data from the Russian Central Bank showed that cash sent back by Uzbek workers had halved in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014.

Inflation has been creeping up across Uzbekistan. Earlier this month, the government said that it was going to increase public sector salaries by 10%.

Unofficial reports from Uzbekistan have said that this injection of cash into the economy has also inflated food prices by 30%.

Higher tariffs will pose especially serious challenges to the Uzbek population given the approaching winter coupled with plummeting money remittances from abroad, the increasing staples and services prices as well as anticipated shortages of fuel, gas and electricity.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Korea invests in Uzbek Lukoil

SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian energy company Lukoil said it is negotiating with Korea Eximbank, South Korea’s state export credit agency, on funding for its projects in Uzbekistan. Lukoil is building a $2.66b gas processing plant in Kandym, 100km south-west of Bukhara, with South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and is developing several projects along the Turkmen-Uzbek border.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Uzbek president daughter touted as successor

SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek media reported that Usman Khaknasarov, described as a local political analyst with good access to the ruling elite, had said that Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov may be lining up his youngest daughter, Lola, to succeed him. The 77-year-old Mr Karimov has yet to announce a successor. His eldest daughter, Gulnara, has lost her power and influence.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Bomb blasts in Uzbek capital

SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A bomb exploded near a mosque in central Tashkent. Nobody was hurt in the explosion. Police said they are looking for two people who left the bomb in a bag at a bus stop.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

GM Uzbekistan car sales fall by 53%

SEPT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Car-maker GM Uzbekistan’s sales to Russia in Jan.-Aug. fell by 53% compared to the same period last year, it said. GM Uzbekistan is a joint venture between General Motors and the Uzbek government. It sold 13,752 cars to Russia in Jan.-Aug.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Uzbek authorities plan Aral Sea salvage

SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan will spend $4.3b over the next three years improving living conditions around the Aral Sea, media reported. The Aral Sea had been the fourth largest lake in the world but upstream Soviet irrigation policies diverted water from its tributary rivers and shrunk it to a fraction of its former size.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Senior Uzbek official talks of corruption blight

SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a conference in Tashkent this week, Deputy Premier Rustam Azimov said corruption and extortion were among the hurdles that private entrepreneurs face in Uzbekistan.

This is important because it is rare for government officials to admit that corruption blights Uzbekistan and its officials.

“Businesses in Uzbekistan are today experiencing a lot of problems related to the illegal interference in entrepreneurial activity. There is excessive bureaucracy, as well as bribery and extortion,” media quoted him as saying. Mr Azimov was speaking at national conference on the security forces’ role in reforming and diversifying the economy.

A Tashkent-based analyst said Mr Azimov’s comments may be a signal the government was about to launch an anti-corruption purge.

It may also be a way of deflecting problems that have hit Uzbekistan. Remittances have fallen by half and inflation is rising. Most of these problems are regional and linked to a weak Russian economy and a fall in oil prices, but the Uzbek government will want to shift responsibility.

Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, ranks Uzbekistan as one of the worst countries in the world for corruption.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Construction starts at new Uzbek tyre plant

AUG. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek officials held a ceremony to mark the beginning of construction of a new tyre plant in the Angren special industrial zone, 90km outside of Tashkent. The total cost of the plant will be $230m. Uzkhimprom, the state-owned chemical industry holding, Uzavtoprom, the Uzbek car industry holding, and the two metallurgic complexes at Navoi and Almalyk will build the plant, the Trend News Agency reports.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan increases state salaries

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – From Sept.1 government salaries and pensions in Uzbekistan increased by 10%, media reported, another indication that inflation is accelerating across the region.

Uzbek president Islam Karimov ordered 26, ostentatiously to improve the quality of life for ordinary people but in reality to keep up with price inflation in basic foodstuffs, utilities and petrol.

Like the rest of the region, Uzbekistan’s currency has fallen sharply in value and remittance from Russia have roughly halved.

The Uzbek government usually increases salaries and pensions once or twice a year. The previous salary increase of 12% came in December 2014.

As well as boosting salaries, the government is also increasing import duties on major staples ranging from meat and poultry, to dairy and fruits by around 30%. University tuition fees have risen by 15%. Part of the thinking behind the increase in duties is to ring-fence agricultural production in Uzbekistan during the economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan Airways shuts Kiev office

SEPT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan Airways closed its office in Kiev, due to delays in reinstating flights between the Ukrainian capital and Tashkent. “Our airline has been expecting to receive permission from the Ukrainian aviation authorities since May,” Alisher Abdualiyev, the Uzbek ambassador to Ukraine, told the kapital.ua website. In May 2015, flights between Tashkent and Kiev were discontinued due to the absence of an agreement between the two countries.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)