June 27, 2014
Businesses for Electronic Trade. 2
the special industrial zone “Angren”. 4
New sugar plant to be commissioned in 3Q 2014. 4
1.27 tons of drugs destroyed in Tashkent4
Press-service of MFA of the Republic of Uzbekistan
ECONOMY
Businesses for Electronic Trade
Over the last ten years, trading volume at the Uzbek Republican Commodity Exchange (URCE) with the involvement of small businesses increased more than 11 times – from 313 billion soums to 3.6 trillion soums.
Growth in turnover of commodity, which shows for many years a positive trend based on which the URCE managed to stand as one of leaders in commodity exchanges of CIS countries, is criterion of estimation of URCE operation. Particularly, the volume of transactions consummated during 2004-2013 period increased over 15 times, from 450 billion soums to 7.1 trillion soums. Second quarter this year resulted only in 2 trillions soums of the sold commodities, which is 27,8% higher than the same period of previous year.
Exchanging market with 80% of all transactions consummated facilitated the growth of the absolute measures in turnover of commodities. Trade volume amounted 5.9 trillion soums in 2013, while the amount of export transactions consummated at trading floor made about $124 million.
Implementation of mutual exchanges between national manufacturers and foreign partners through the clearing house is one of the key factors of their guaranteed mechanism. It ensures fulfillment of clients’ obligations who made exchange contracts both on timely payment for goods, and on their delivery. Owing to, this fact an average level of obligations’ fulfillment exceeded 95%.
Market prices to facilitate additional income, directly invested to renovation and modernization of these companies’ production lines, is another key condition for attraction of vendors to stock trading. Last year’s indices show that the volume of additional income reached 2.2 trillion soums against 15 billion soums in 2004.
New mechanism of state and corporate purchase, considered to be prospective sphere of URCE operation, is a trigger for activation of entrepreneurship.
Over the last two years, volume of the state purchase made through the electronic trading, increased over 2.5 times and amounted to 417 billion soums. Meanwhile, saving of budgetary funds amounted 83 billion soums. The share of the small-scale businesses from the total amount of suppliers made over 83%.
As for the corporate purchase introduced last September, their volume amounted 61.8 billion soums in 2013, and assets’ savings amounted 10.6 million soums. Meanwhile, the number of suppliers exceeded six thousand, 94% of which is a small-scaled business. These data clearly illustrate the ambitions of business community Uzbekistan for taking an active part at the electronic trades.
investments: enginering
Machinery Evolution
Machine building is the driving force behind almost any sector of an economy oriented toward high efficiency and competitiveness, especially agriculture. Every year, thousands of tractors, harvesters and other farming machinery are driven to Uzbekistan’s fields to secure the country’s food independence, making its agricultural sector act as the locomotive of the national economy.
In order for any country’s agricultural machine building industry to enjoy a breakthrough growth, two major factors are necessary – a stable domestic demand and investment attractiveness of the sector. The first allows farming businesses to make long-term production plans and so to invest in modernization and – which is especially important – in designing own machinery and adaptation of the best foreign products to the local conditions. A stable domestic demand will attract local and foreign investors to promising joint projects, which will boost local technological re-equipment and allow for entering foreign markets. This is the path of development Uzbekistan’s agricultural machine building industry is currently moving along.
The republic inherited quite a lot of machine building facilities from the USSR. However, they had two major drawbacks: they were designed by and large for manufacturing machinery for cotton cultivation, and were technologically backward. Since independence, the government has had to take a lot of serious steps to reform the industry through attraction of foreign investments and introduction of foreign technologies. These steps were absolutely necessary, for the agricultural sector of the country had experienced destruction of its traditional ways and needed new effective and modern practices to apply under new economic conditions. The new farms that were set up in the republic did not have enough machinery and there was no efficient service maintenance system for it, which hindered the growth in the agricultural sector, not allowing for bigger crops. That was why strategic investors – leading foreign manufacturers of agricultural machinery – were attracted to Uzbekistan. They did not only bring modern technologies to the country but also progressive approaches to organizing production under market economy conditions.
Among the main partners of the nation’s agricultural machine industry were German companies. In 2010, Claas KGaA mbH and its Uzbek partner set up the joint venture Uz CLAAS Agro. Since then, the joint venture has set up the production of grain harvesters Dominator 130 and Tucano 430, tractors Arion 630C, Axion 850, and Axos 340C, the forage harvester Jaguar 850, and the bailer Markant 55. Today, there are over 120 people working in the joint venture. In order to provide its machinery with spare parts and service maintenance, the servicing company Uz CLAAS Service was also set up. Today, it operates in almost all the regions of the country. The joint venture presented a new pilot tractor designed special for Uzbekistan. It is a 100-horsepower tractor to be used for row tillage, sowing, spraying and removing top cotton foliage. The tractor is being currently tested in four regions of the country. The tests are expected to finish at the end of the year, and then a decision on its manufacture will be made. High-clearance tractors like this one are made only by former Tashkent Tractor Plant in Uzbekistan. However, they are inferior to the pilot model with regard to some specifications.
In 2012, the German company Lemken GmbH & Co. KG and Chirchiqqishloqmash of Uzbekistan set up the joint venture Lemken Chirchiq. It manufactures modern tillage machinery and other agricultural equipment. The Italian-American manufacturer Case New Holland actively operates in Uzbekistan as well: its joint ventures UzCaseMash and UzCaseTractor produce the tractors New Holland TL100 and TS135, Case IH 1200 planter cabins and spare parts. The joint venture UzCaseService services these tractors in the republic.
The year 2012 marked another important stage in the development of the industry – it was when the program of further modernization and re-equipment of the country’s agricultural machine building for 2012 – 2016 was adopted. It is aimed at organizing production of new agricultural and land improvement machinery in the republic, as well as new commercial vehicles and small food processing businesses in it. In order for the program to start off well, the industry’s businesses and manufacturers engaged in setting up the production of new machinery and components for them, including those under license agreements with leading foreign manufacturers, were exempted from paying income and property taxes for five years. Another important step taken was the establishment of special designing and engineering center to work on creation new agricultural machinery and equipment perfectly fitting the local farming conditions. The system of post-sales servicing was also reformed. In cooperation with the country’s major agricultural machinery manufacturers, they built special sales and post-sales servicing network facilities in the nation.
All these measures resulted in outstanding achievements. However, the reforms in the industry still had to be carried on and intensified. In May of the current year, a new stage in the development of Uzbekistan’s agricultural machine building industry started off – with setting up the holding company Uzagroprommashholding. Its initial authorized capital was composed of parts of the state shares in the industry’s manufacturers. The company was assigned a wide range of tasks of bringing the industry to a higher development level through boosting research and technological cooperation ties and introducing modern energy-efficient and metal-saving technologies. In order to fulfill them, they carried out a number of production-related reforms. Tashkent Tractor Plant and Chirchiqselmash, for instance, were reorganized to become Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant and Chirchiq Agricultural Machinery Plant respectively – each to specialize in manufacture of certain machinery and equipment. The plant in Tashkent is to produce tractors, trailers and cotton harvesters, while Chirchiq one is to make mounted and tow machinery. Agregat Plant, based in Tashkent, is going to manufacture agricultural machinery parts and components, having been reorganized as well.
(Source: “Uzbekistan Today” newspaper)
the special industrial zone “Angren”
New sugar plant to be commissioned in 3Q 2014
Second sugar plant in Uzbekistan will be commissioned in the third quarter of 2014, local newspaper Pravda Vostoka reported.
Angren Shakar will operate in the territory of special industrial zone Angren. The capacity of plant is 1,000 tonnes a day.
Within the project, the enterprise received customs preferences to import equipment for three years, the paper said.
Currently, the construction and assembly works are underway at the plant. The administrative building, warehouses for raw materials and ready goods, automobile and train scales, main production building and additional buildings were constructed.
Launch of the second sugar plant in the third quarter will help significantly decrease imports of sugar and meet internal demand. The first plant is located in Khorezm region.
The project cost of the second plant is US$108.5 million. It will produce 1,000 tonnes of sugar a day. The project is implemented in cooperation with Singapore’s and Welton International Enterprises Pte. Ltd. and Kito Investment Pte. Ltd., as well as Austrian SЕID Handelsgesellschaft m.b.H.
Khorezm Shakar JV OJSC is an only sugar producer in Uzbekistan. Khorezm Sugar Plant was commissioned in 1998. The cost of the plant is US$83.25 million. Preliminary plant was designed for processing sugar-beet, which was planned to plant in Uzbekistan. The capacity of the plant was 3,000 tonnes of sugar-beet a day. But low crop pushed to conserve the plant.
Shakar Investment, an Uzbek-Austrian-US joint venture, carried out project on transfer of the capacity to processing of cane sugar with the cost of US$2 million in 2002. Currently, the plant can process 1,000 tonnes of cane sugar a day.
Shareholders of the company are Motril Investments (Panama, 69.43%), KITO Investments (Singapore, 20%), SEID Handels GmbH (Austria, 10%) and employees (0.57%).
(Source: UzDaily.com)
Society
1.27 tons of drugs destroyed in Tashkent
1.27 tons of drugs destroyed in Tashkent – Uzbekistan News Today, by order of the Government of Uzbekistan, the National Security Service destroyed another batch of drugs seized by law enforcement authorities of the country in the fight against drug trafficking.
Today, the interdepartmental commission prepared 1.27 tons of drugs for destruction, including 85.3 kg of heroin, about 705 kg of opium, 266.5 kg marihuana, 175 kg of hashish, as well as a large amount of marble-flower, cannabis, drugs in the form of tablets and solutions.
Uzbekistan attaches great importance to fulfill obligations to the international community to combat illicit drug trafficking. In February 1995, Uzbekistan joined the 1961 UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances of 1971 and against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and psychotropic substances of 1988. In 1999 was passed the Law of Uzbekistan “On Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances”.
1.27 tons of drugs destroyed in Tashkent – Uzbekistan News The main factor that has a negative impact on drug situation in Uzbekistan is the proximity to the world’s largest producers of drugs – Afghanistan. According to international experts, in 2013 the acreage of opium marble-flower cultivation in Afghanistan increased by 36% to 209,000 ha (in 2012 -154 000 ha), the amount of opium increased by 1.5 times and amounted to 5500 tons (in 2012 – 3700 t).
In 2013, Uzbekistan’s law enforcement agencies carried out special complex operations to detect and deter illegal activities of transnational drug cartels, to stop smuggling channels, elimination of drug crops and prevent the spread of drug addiction.
In 2013, 2326 kg (in 2012 – 3043.4 kg) of illicitly trafficked drugs were seized in the country, including heroin – 121.6 kg (261.5 kg), opium – 851.3 kg (770 kg), marijuana -873.5 kg (1451.2 kg), hashish -143.3 kg (230.7 kg), kuknar – 336.3 kg (330 kg).
1.27 tons of drugs destroyed in Tashkent – Uzbekistan News Interior Ministry revealed 6707 (7072) drug crimes. 1,067.4 kg (1775.3 kg) of drugs were seized, including heroin – 21.3 kg, opium – 26.7 kg (107.5 kg), marijuana – 693.1 kg (1186.1 kg), hashish – 25.3 kg, kuknara – 300.5 kg (322.2 kg) and psychotropic substances – 455 g (1061 g). The National Security Service revealed 520 (675) drug-related crimes. 1059, 5 kg (1069.4 kg) of drugs were seized, inc. heroin – 80.8 kg (174 kg), opium – 715.2 kg (547.3 kg), marijuana – 147.9 kg (222.2 kg), hashish – 95.3 kg (118.1 kg) and kuknara – 20.3 kg (7.8 kg).
NSS frontier troops in 89 (76) cases seized 75.92 kg (151.8 kg) of drugs.
State Customs Committee identified 358 (332) cases of illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. 223 (156.2) kg of drugs were seized, 9035 (7999) tablets of psychotropic substances, 160.3 kg (246 liters and 0.4 kg) of precursors.
Information materials on the drug situation are provided to and exchanged with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, coordinating structures of the SCO, Central Asian states and Russia.
(Source: UzReport.uz)