MARCH 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A little known investigative reporting unit based in Bosnia released a report which said Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, may have earned as much as $1b from telecoms companies wanting to enter Uzbekistan. Ms Karimova is currently under house arrest in Tashkent.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has signed a three year extension to a contract with Afghanistan to maintain the 75km railway from Hairstan, on the Uzbek-Afghan border, to Mazar-i-Sharif, media reported. Reports said the contract was worth $19m/year to Uzbekistan. This is a rare Uzbek service export.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Cotton Campaign, a lobby group set up to stop Uzbekistan using child labour to pick its cotton, said the Uzbek authorities had detained and arrested one of its in-country reporters. Uzbekistan has not commented.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 17 2015 (The Bulletin) – In a statement on its global oil and gas output, Russia’s Lukoil said although there were pressures on its downstream production sites, its projects in Uzbekistan were on target. Lukoil is a major investor in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has agreed to buy two high-speed trains from the Spanish company Talgo, media reported. The Uzbek government is spending millions on updating its train network.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – The black flag of the extremist group IS has been seen flying in north Afghanistan close to the border with Central Asia, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. This is important because Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have both said they are worried about the Taliban moving north.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Pakistan wants to increase energy cooperation with Uzbekistan, media reported, a potential boost for the Uzbek oil and gas sector.
Western energy companies such as London-listed Tethys Petroleum are gradually exiting Uzbekistan because of a worsening business environment.
Pakistan is also lobbying for Uzbekistan to participate in the TAPI pipeline project that would bring Turkmen gas to India, passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Uzbekneftegaz, the national oil and gas company in Uzbekistan, annually produces 63b cubic metres (bcm) of gas mostly for domestic consumption.
The government has a plan to increase both production and exports and to reduce wasteful use by 2020. The aim to export up to 16bcm by 2020 is well short of Uzbekistan’s regional commitments.
Notwithstanding the declining demand in Russia for Uzbek gas, China is asking for 10bcm and Pakistan’s demands might just be impossible to meet.
Furthermore, the TAPI project has proved to be a difficult one to realise and the timeline for its completion in 2017 is still under review.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has signed an investment deal with the United Arab Emirates worth a reported $120m, media said. The deals, reports said, would focus on joint investment projects. Uzbekistan has been looking to tap into the Gulf States for investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)
MARCH 10 2015 (The Bulletin) – Muhammad-Sodiq Muhammad-Yusuf, Uzbekistan’s most prominent Islamic scholar, died aged 63. Reports said he died while playing basketball in Tashkent. Muhammad-Sodiq was influential because he was Uzbekistan’s first post-independence religious leader.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)
MARCH 7 2015 (The Bulletin) – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a Japanese company, has won a tender to build a chemical complex in central Uzbekistan, media reported quoting the Uzbek government press service. Reports said that the complex, which will produce ammonia, will cost around $1b to build. Ammonia is used in fertiliser.
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(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)