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Draft
law on competition discussed March 16, 2011
The Legislative Chamber Committee for budget and economic reforms
jointly with the State committee for demonopolization and competition
development held a seminar on the priority directions and legislative
bases of the competitive policies.
Deputies, officials from ministries and departments, as well as
representatives of the monopoly enterprises discussed the issues of
improvement of the legislation and development of competition on the
commodity markets, as well as the draft law “On competition”.
The proposal to develop this new law was made by President Islam
Karimov in his 12 November speech on the Concept of further deepening of
democratic reforms and formation of the civil society in the country.
The adoption of the law on competition will lead to improvement of
legal regulation of relations and prevention of monopolistic activities
on the commodities markets.
The law will replace the old law on competition and limitation of
monopolistic activities, which does not correspond to the present level
of development of the economy of Uzbekistan.
According to seminar participants, the level of monopolization has
significantly decreased over the past years on the commodities and
services markets, thanks to effective competitive policy implemented by
the state.
The number of monopoly enterprises has been reduced by 75% during the
last 10 years.
Between 2004 and 2009, the share of monopolistic products in the
total GDP of Uzbekistan decreased from 26% to 20.8%.
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Deputies adopt law to amend Constitution
March 05, 2011
The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan held a
session to consider the draft law on amendments and additions to certain
articles of the Constitution.
The changes were prepared in accordance with the legislative
initiatives outlined in the speech of President Islam Karimov “The
concept of deepening democratic reforms and formation of civil society
in the country” at the joint session of both chambers of the parliament
on 12 November 2010.
The document is aimed at further democratization of the state power
and management, ensuring a more balanced distribution of powers among
the three subjects of state authority: President as head of the state,
legislative and executive branches, as well as strengthening the role
and influence of political parties in the implementation of
socio-economic and socio-political reforms, renewal and modernization of
the country.
Prior to the consideration at the plenary session, the draft law was
extensively discussed at meetings of political party fractions and
deputy groups from the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan, as well as in
the committees of the Legislative Chamber.
During these discussions, the deputies fully supported the
legislative initiatives of the head of the state, underlining the
timeliness and importance of amendments to the Constitution.
During the discussion of the document, the members of the Liberal
Democratic Party of Uzbekistan stressed that the draft law introduces
amendments in the article 98 of the Constitution, according to which a
new constitutional order is introduced when the nomination of the Prime
Minister is proposed by a political party, which received the highest
number of parliamentary seats at the elections to the Legislative
Chamber, or by several parties that have the highest equal number of
seats in the parliament.
This legislative initiative is the head of state defines the start of
a new stage of democratic development of the country, and development of
civil society, and has a historical significance for Uzbekistan. The MPs
noted that inclusion in the Basic Law of the new order of forming the
government significantly increases the responsibility of political
parties, their role and importance in the society.
The members of the fraction of the People’s Democratic Party of
Uzbekistan highlighted the importance of amendments to the Constitution,
according to which the Oliy Majlis receives the right to express a no
confidence vote to the Prime Minister. The draft law clearly regulates
the mechanism for the implementation of this right.
Thus, article 98 stipulates that in case of sustained controversies
between the Prime Minister and the Legislative Chamber on the proposal
formally submitted to the President by at least a third of the
Legislative Chamber deputies, the issue of expression of no confidence
to the Prime Minister is submitted for consideration at the joint
meeting of the two chambers of the parliement.
The vote of no confidence to the Prime Minister is considered
approved if it receives the votes of at least two-thirds of the total
deputies of the Legislative Chamber and members of the Senate. In this
case, the President makes the decision to relieve the Prime Minister of
the duties. The entire Cabinet of Ministers resigns together with the
Prime Minister.
This new rule significantly increases the role of fractions of
political parties and the parliament in addressing critical national
issues, and expands the powers of the Oliy Majlis in the system of state
authority, the deputies said.
Speakers from the Milly Tiklanish Democratic Party drew the attention
to the changes and additions made in the paragraph 15 of the first part
of article 78 of the Constitution, under which the chambers of
Parliament are entitled to hear the report of the Prime Minister on
urgent issues of socio-economic development of the country. This
significantly expands the possibilities of the parliamentary control
over the activities of the executive branch, and will become an
important factor in increasing the effectiveness of the activity of the
deputies and fractions in promoting the interests of their constituents
in addressing the pressing social and economic issues.
The members of the fraction of the Adolat Social Democratic Party
stressed that the introduced amendments to the Constitution
significantly expand the rights and the effectiveness of the executive
branch in organizing its activities. In the paragraph 8 of article 93 of
the Constitution, the authority of the President to “form and direct the
executive authority staff” is excluded.
Representatives of the Parliamentary Group of the Environmental
Movement of Uzbekistan stressed the importance of the changes to the
Constitution, which outline the mechanisms of parliamentary control in
the formation and implementation of the national budget. For example,
the new paragraph 6 of article 80 of the Constitution has a norm
according to which the Senate is granted the right to approve the
President’s decrees on appointment of the Chairman of the Accounts
Chamber.
Taking into account the views expressed at the meeting, the
Legislative Chamber adopted the Law “On amendments to certain articles
of the Constitution (articles 78, 80, 93, 96 and 98)”.
www.uza.uz
Deputies approve 2011 action program
January 03, 2011
The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan held a session
on 30 December to consider the Program of actions for 2011 and the
following years to implement the Concept of deepening democratic reforms
and formation of civil society, proposed by President Islam Karimov.
The program has been developed to speed up democratic transformations
and forma strong civil society. It contains ideas of all parties
represented in the parliament.
The document defines legislative and organizational measures to
implement in practice the President’s concept, which consists of six
parts.
The deputies said the concept of the head of the state had a great
importance in improving the people’s welfare and protecting their
constitutional rights and freedoms.
With consideration of the opinions expressed during the discussion, the
deputies approved the program of action for 2011 and further years.
The chamber also considered draft law on limitation of distribution and
consumption of alcohol and tobacco products.
The document, developed in the framework of the Year of Harmoniously
Developed Generation state program, aims at reducing the negative
influence of the alcohol and tobacco on the health of the people, mainly
youth.
After the consideration of the draft law, the Legislative Chamber
approved the concept of the document and passed it in the first reading.
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Milliy
Tiklanish discusses presidential concept
December 23, 2010
The Central Council of the Democratic Party of Uzbekistan “Milliy
Tiklanish” held a meeting to discuss the presidential concept on
deepening the democratic reforms and forming a civil society.
The members of the council and party’s faction in Legislative Chamber as
well as the regional activists attended the event.
It was noted at the event that the concept proposed by President Karimov
contributed to the country’s modernization and building of civil society
on a higher level, addressing special responsibility on political
parties.
The sides exchanged views on the implementation of concept’s initiatives
on further development and strengthening of parliament and increasing
the role of political parties in society.
Also, the specific measures to study the concept by the representatives
of regional organizations and deputies of local councils were outlined
at the meeting.
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Parliament discusses President’s legislative initiatives
December 01, 2010
The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan on 30 November
considered the priority tasks set by the President for the parliament in
his recently presented Concept of deepening democratic reforms.
The deputies said the head of the state had put forward a wide-scale and
deeply reasoned program of expanding democratic reforms and formation of
civil society.
They especially highlighted the President’s legislative initiatives to
amend the Constitution and adopt new laws to improve the balance of the
powers among the three subjects of state authority – the President as
the head of the state, the legislative and the executive authorities.
For the first time in Uzbekistan, a new order is going to be introduced
when the Prime Minister’s candidature is proposed by the political party
that won the majority of seats at the elections to the Legislative
Chamber or several parties which have equal deputy seats.
Another novelty is granting the parliament the right to issue a
no-confidence vote to the Premier, which would lead to the resignation
of the whole Cabinet. These measures will significantly increase the
role of the parties and the parliament on the whole in solving the most
important state issues, the deputies said.
During the discussion, the members of the lower house proposed to
develop a set of measures to implement the President’s initiatives and
improve the parliament’s activity.
In particular, they called for searching new forms and methods of work
of the committees and the fractions, expanding the interaction of the
parliament with other bodies, improving the legislative activities and
learning the leading foreign experience of law-making.
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President Karimov’s Initiatives to Open New Phase in Reforming
Uzbekistan
November 16, 2010
Joint Session of Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan was held in
the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on November 12, 2010. President of
Uzbekistan Islam Karimov addressed the session.
Mr. Karimov identified the main priorities and put forward a number of
important legislatives initiatives which aim to strengthen the status of
various democratic institutions like parliament, NGOs, mass media,
institutes of civil society, deepen the democratic, legal, political and
economic reforms in the country.
Speaking of the results accomplished in Uzbekistan during the years of
independence, Mr. Karimov said that after gaining independence in 1991
the country denied the obsolete totalitarian, administrative-command and
planning-distributive system and elaborated its own model the “Uzbek
model” of development.
Thanks to this, Uzbekistan’s GDP during less than 20 years of
independence grew 3.5 times, while per capita ratio accounted for 2.5
times, real incomes of population grew 3.8 times, state expenses for
social security grew 5 times, child and maternal mortality rates fell
three and two-fold respectively, life expectancy of men climbed to 73
from 67 years, and to 75 years among women.
“We consciously rejected the revolutionary option of reforms by the
methods of “shock therapy” in favor of evolutionary and phased
development. Thus, we protected our people from the harsh economic and
social turbulences”, - President Karimov has said.
Besides, according to the President, in 2008-2010 when almost the entire
world was suffering the global economic and financial crisis Uzbekistan
recorded GDP growth at 9 percent, in 2009 – 8.1 percent, and in 2010 it
is expected to be 8.5 percent, while in 2011 it is estimated to be 8.3
percent.
Despite these impressive achievements, the Uzbek President believes that
the country has a long and difficult way to accomplish it man goal of
building an open democratic and law-governed state with sustainable
economy.
“Euphoria and complacency, alienation from reality are the main dangers
we may face on our way to the prime goal”, the President said.
Having identified democratization of state power and governance as one
of main priorities for future development President Karimov said that
this aims to implement the constitutional principle of separation of
powers, create an effective system of checks and balances, strengthen
the role of state power and controlling functions of legislative and
representative branches of power in all levels, as well as liberalize
and ensure the independence of judicial system.
Now, with a view to continuing the perfection of political system of the
country as well as the system of state power and governance, the
President has proposed to delegate some powers from the Head of country
to the Parliament and Prime Minister.
Thus, it is suggested that the candidature of Prime Minister shall be
nominated by a political party, which gains the biggest number of seats
in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (Lower House of the
Parliament), or by several political parties, which gain equal number of
seats.
After considering the candidature, the President, in ten days’ time
shall submit it for the consideration and approval by both chambers of
the Parliament.
The nomination shall be deemed approved, if more than a half of MPs vote
for it. The members of the Cabinet of Ministers shall be approved by
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan upon the nomination of Prime
Minister.
In case of persistent contradictions between the Prime Minister and the
Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis with regard to the proposal
officially submitted to the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan by
at least one third of the members of the Legislative Chamber, the issue
of passing the vote of no confidence in Prime Minister shall tabled at
the joint sitting of both houses of the Parliament.
The vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister shall be deemed passed,
if at least two thirds of members of both chambers of the parliament
vote for it.
In this case, the President shall make a decision on relieving the Prime
Minister from his post and entire Cabinet of Ministers shall resign
along with the Prime Minister.
The new candidature of the Prime Minister shall be nominated by
President following relevant consultations with all fractions of
political parties represented in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy
Majlis.
If the Oliy Majlis refuse the President’s nominee for two times in a
row, the Head of country shall appoint an acting Prime Minister and
dissolve the Parliament.
According to the President, these amendments introduce the new procedure
of nomination and approval of Prime Minister, which meets democratic
principles, and gives the Parliament the right to pass a vote of no
confidence in the Prime Minister.
Yet another initiative in the sphere of democratization of state power
and governance envisages ruling out the ambiguity and vague
interpretations in case of situation when President of the country may
not be able to exercise his duties. Thus, the President has quoted this
initiative as saying: “ Shall the President of the country not be able
to exercise his duties, then his duties and authorities shall be
temporarily entrusted to the Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis
of the Republic of Uzbekistan and presidential elections shall be held
within three months from this moment”.
Reforming the judicial and legal system is the President’s yet another
priority. In this regard Mr. Karimov said that Uzbekistan has so far
implemented a set of organizational and legal measures aimed at
consistent consolidation of judicial power, ensuring independence of
courts, turning them into a truly independent institution of state whose
main job is to protect and safeguard the rights and freedoms of
citizens.
President underlined that for over the last years Uzbekistan was able to
take out the judicial system of control and influence of bodies of the
executive power. Besides, Uzbekistan established courts for civil and
criminal cases which has led to significant improvements in legal
system. The guarantees of legal protection of citizens have been
significantly reinforced.
Uzbekistan has been consistently moving towards ensuring the equality of
prosecution and defense, competitiveness at all stages of criminal and
civil legal procedure, as well as improving the quality and timeliness
of administering justice.
According to the President, nearly so far 75 percent of crimes were
moved from the category of grave and the gravest crimes to the category
of crimes, which do not represent serious public danger and the lesser
grave crimes.
Besides, now Uzbekistan widely uses penalty and restitution rather than
arrest and detention for economic crimes.
Thanks liberalization legal of system Uzbekistan now has one of the
lowest number prisoners per 100 thousand people which is 166 prisoners.
Meanwhile, in Russia it makes up 611 and in the United States – 738
prisoners. Besides, for over the last 10 years the number of prisoners
in Uzbekistan fell two-fold.
According to the President abolishment of death penalty in Uzbekistan
from January 2008 and replacing it with life sentence has become the
crucial moment of legal reforms in Uzbekistan so far.
Moreover, life imprisonment in Uzbekistan is an exceptional punishment
and shall be enforced only for two counts of crimes – premeditated
murder in aggravating circumstances and terrorism. At the same time this
type of punishment may not to women, persons who were below 18 years of
age while committing the crime and men above 60 years of age.
The President said that introduction of “Habeas Corpus” has become yet
another principle step forward in implementing the judicial reforms in
the country.
Since 2001 the institute of reconciliation was introduced into the
law-enforcement and judicial practice in Uzbekistan and has proven to be
effectively. Within this practice nearly 100,000 citizens were released
from criminal liability.
President has put forward a number of initiatives on enhancing the legal
system of the country. For instance, Mr. Karimov suggests that it is
expedient to deny the courts the authority to file a criminal case which
will turn them into a body justice rather than a body of legal
prosecution.
The President has also proposed to adopt the new Code of the Republic of
Uzbekistan on Administrative Responsibility in the new wording. The code
in force was adopted in 1994 and since then it has been amended more
than 60 times.
In his address President Karimov outlined the sphere of mass media,
freedom of speech and information as yet another important and integral
part reforms.
For over the years of independence, and particularly, during the last 10
years, Uzbekistan implemented a large-scale set of organizational and
legal measures with a view to ensuring the freedom of speech and
liberalizing the mass media.
“For over this period ten acts of legislation have been adopted to
provide for effective functioning of information space, dynamic and free
development of mass media”, the President said.
Besides, the National Association of Electronic Mass Media, which now
joins more than 100 electronic mass media and the Social Fund to Support
and Develop Independent Print Media and News Agencies of Uzbekistan have
been established with an aim to rendering comprehensive support to the
non-state media.
According to the President, during these years Uzbekistan has set up the
satellite network of TV and Radio broadcasting. Today the national
system of telecommunications has direct international channels on 28
directions with an access to 180 countries worldwide. On-line
broadcasting on Internet is also available.
As a result of this extensive work for over the last decade, the number
of print mass media grew 1.5 times while electronic mass media grew 7
times and now makes up about 1200 mass media outlets. Nearly 53 percent
of all television channels and 85 percent of radio channels are the
non-state. Mass media in Uzbekistan broadcast in 7 languages including
English. The number of Internet users now total over a 6 million.
Meanwhile, the President believes that adoption of the Law “On
transparency of activity of bodies of state power and governance” is
urgent since it could eliminate the bottlenecks in terms of observing
the constitutional rights of citizens to information and raising the
responsibility of state authorities and governing bodies for the quality
of their decisions.
Then, the President has proposed to adopt the Law “On television and
radio broadcasting” with a view to developing this crucially important
sphere which plays yet more significant role in the processes of
democratization.
Meanwhile, upgrading the television and radio broadcasting into an
independent and powerful industry, emergence of new forms and types of
television and radio broadcasting make it necessary to adopt a single
law which would regulate the processes related to creating and
disseminating the television and radio programs.
The President has also suggested to adopt the laws “On economic
foundations of activity of the mass media”, “On the guarantees of state
support of the mass media” aimed at promoting the efficiency of activity
and protection of economic interests of mass media, granting additional
economic preferences, implementing.
Underlining the importance of ensuring the freedom of choice and
development of the electoral legislation in Uzbekistan which is yet
another important part of proposed reforms, the President said that the
country has developed effective and democratic electoral system. In
particular, the Central Election Commission was given an exclusive
authorities to prepare and hold elections which has become one of the
crucial moments in the process of perfecting the electoral system. Under
the law, any attempts to interfere in the election campaign by state
bodies and authorities, as well as the public associations are
prosecuted by law.
Meanwhile, the amendments to the law on elections of 2008 became an
important stage in developing the electoral system. With increasing the
number of seats from 120 to 150, of which 135 deputies are elected from
political parties, 15 seats in the Legislative Chamber are allocated to
the deputies from the Ecological movement of Uzbekistan.
The electoral system became an important factor of enhancing the social
and political activeness of women and their role in the sphere of state
and social construction. The electoral law now stipulates the norms that
women should make at least 30 percent of nominees from political parties
for deputy seats.
Thanks to this norm now 22 percent of the total number of MPs in lower
house of the Uzbek parliament are women while women make up 15 percent
of MPs in the upper house
The President in his address put forward a number of initiatives aimed
at ensuring equality during election campaign. Mr. Karimov also
suggested to ban campaigning not only in the election day but also in
the day prior to voting.
According to the President, this norm is used in the legislation of
several developed foreign countries and aims to give voters some more
additional time to make up their minds and define their political
preferences.
The President also proposed to prohibit publishing the result of opinion
polls within five days prior to the voting day and in the voting day.
This ban would also include Internet along with traditional mass media.
Developing the institutions of civil society was another sphere, the
President outlined in his address. At present there are over 5.100 NGOs
in Uzbekistan. It is 2.5 times more than in 2000. The number of
citizens’ gatherings and the self-governance bodies – makhalla make up
more than 10 thousand.
Such national institutions on human rights as the Ombudsman, National
Center for Human Rights, Institute for Research of Public Opinion,
Institute of Monitoring the Current Legislation have been successfully
operating in the country.
So far over a 200 law and legislative acts related to enhancing the role
and importance of institutes of civil society have been adopted in the
country.
During the last three years alone the Social fund at the Oliy Majlis
allocated more than 11 billion Uzbek soums to implement various social
projects initiated by the civil society institutions.
The President believes that adoption of the Law “On social partnership”
may have a profound significance in ensuring further development of
civil society institutions, strengthening their role in providing
transparency and efficiency of ongoing reforms.
Mr. Karimov also suggests that it is high time to adopt the Law “On
public control in the Republic of Uzbekistan” aimed at creating the
systematic and effective legal mechanism of control on the part of
society and civic institutions over implementation of laws by bodies of
state power and governance.
The Law “On ecological control” aimed at defining the role and place of
the NGOs in the system of environmental protection is also one of the
urgent tasks, the President has said.
Finally, the President suggested to further deepen the market reforms
and continue with liberalization of economy.
According to the President, so far, Uzbekistan adopted and successfully
enacted over 400 laws on economic and market reforms. Yet, it is a long
way to go.
In this context the President put forward believes it is necessary to
adopt the Law “On protection of private property and guarantees of
rights of owners”, which would fix the principal guarantees of state
with regard to private ownership that represents the basis of market
economy.
Further, in order to improve the system of management and eliminate the
excessive bureaucratic obstacles, it will be important to draft and
adopt the Law “On licensing procedures in the sphere of entrepreneurial
activity”.
“We need to clearly define the strictly limited shortlist and types of
licensing procedures required to do business, thus resolutely cutting
the excessive restrictions and setting forward the legislative
prohibition on introduction of the new types of licenses and licensing
procedures not envisaged by law”, the President said.
Mr.Karimov also put forward the idea of defining the new organizational
and legal forms of business – the family business. “I am confident that
establishing the legislative basis for its organization shall allow
improve the legal guarantees of family business, bring about the
conditions for a rapid and extensive development of family business in
different branches of economy.
The President also proposed to adopt the new Law “On competition”, which
would stipulate the norms that regulate the monopolistic activity not
only on the commodity, but also on financial markets.
Experts believe that the initiatives put forward by President Islam
Karimov open a new phase in the implementation of political, democratic,
economic and legal reforms in Uzbekistan. Successful and timely
implementation of President Karimov’s initiatives will enhance
Uzbekistan’s leading positions in political and economic arena, as well
as turn Uzbekistan into captain of democratic reforms in Central Asia.
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