July 24, 2015
Export potential of winemakers of Uzbekistan. 2
CB: The total capital of banks of Uzbekistan reached 7.2 trillion soums. 2
The firm step of innovation in the construction sector 3
10th Sharq Taronalari International Music Festival.. 5
Sharq Taronalari: The Music Crown Much Longed For 5
economy
Export potential of winemakers of Uzbekistan
Domestic winemakers have been working to expand the industry’s export capacity through new promising initiatives. Most of them focus on channeling foreign expertise and technologies into the local practice of wine production.
This year, the O’zvinosanoat Holding Company has been implementing four investment projects totaling $19 million. The biggest project implies the construction of the second furnace at Asl Oyna, Central Asia’s leading manufacturer of glass containers with a capacity of 85 million standard units. That would not just fully provide domestic winemakers with bottles, but would also cover the needs of the markets in neighboring countries that are willing to purchase the products of domestic glassmakers.
However, this is what is called a side-line-production. Regarding the ‘sunny vine’, in the short term Uzbekistan is planning to introduce the experience of Greek and Italian winemakers, the acknowledged leaders in Europe.
For instance, the O’zvinosanoat Holding Company and the Greek company G.Alexanropoulos & Th.Economidou & Parners and Wine Service Flerianos are negotiating a joint pilot project in Uzbekistan. The agreement was reached during the visit of Greek winemakers to Uzbekistan.
They visited the production facilities of leading Uzbek enterprises and vineyards. They pointed out major efforts to modernize and upgrade technological equipment, talked with their Uzbek colleagues on the methods of production, storage and laboratory analysis of products, and discussed possible solutions of correcting the production technologies and improving the quality of the finished product.
They agreed on the implementation of a joint project at two domestic enterprises. It will focus on improving the production technology for wine and alcohol products with the assistance of Greek experts. The sides also signed a memorandum for the development of further cooperation, exchange of experience, internships and specialized seminars that would help to advance the skills of winemakers, technicians and other specific staff.
Cooperation with Italian winemakers has been in progress as well. The O’zvinosanoat representatives have recently visited several companies of the wine industry in Italy to explore the new technology trends and the experience in the organization of wine tourism. For example, the Uzbek experts visited Florence, castles, museums, wineries, restaurants, hotels and vineyards that at the forefront of this kind of tourism. Annually, it pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues.
Uzbekistan’s winemakers also have something to be proud of. They have successfully demonstrated this during tasting the top local wines: dry white ‘Uzbekistan’, dry red ‘Qora Guzal’, and ‘Cahors’ and ‘Gullya Kandoz’ dessert wines . The Italian experts noted the Uzbek dessert wines, their harmonious and rich sweet taste with a unique multilevel fruity aroma, atypical to European varieties. Representatives of specialized companies came up with proposals for the development of joint projects aimed at exporting ‘Cahors’ and ‘Gullya Kandoz’ wines to Italy.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
FINANCE
CB: The total capital of banks of Uzbekistan reached 7.2 trillion soums
The Central Bank within the framework of enlarged session, discussed the results of the banking system in the first half of 2015, the execution of the main directions of the economic program and the priorities for the current year defined by the President Islam Karimov at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on January 16 this year.
The session was led by the Chairman of the Central Bank Faizullah Mullajanov.
As was noted, monetary policy of the Central Bank in the reporting period was aimed at achieving the forecast of macroeconomic indicators for 2015, execution of tasks indicated in regulations and presidential decrees on further reforms and improvement of the stability of the banking system and achieving high international rating indicators.
The current level of capital adequacy of the banking system as of today makes 24.3%, which is 3 times higher than the requirements set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (8%). The total capital of banks as of July 1, 2015 amounted to more than 7.2 trillion soums (currency rates of CB RU from 24.07.2015 1$= 2570.22 soums ).
The level of current liquidity for several years exceeds 64%, which is twice higher than the minimum standards adopted in the world practice.
Total assets of banks in comparison with the same period last year increased by 27.6% and amounted to more than 59.5 trillion soums.
(Source: UzReport.uz)
innovations
The firm step of innovation in the construction sector
Construction is one of the most ancient sectors of economy and spheres of human activity. As classics of economic theory put it, man is always in need of food, clothes and dwelling. With the development of civilization and population growth in the world, demand for different types of edifices and structures, not to mention dwelling houses, has been growing correspondingly.
That demand gave rise to supply, according to representatives of business and entrepreneurship. There emerged all sorts of construction firms, trusts and companies, customers, contractors and subcontractors, as well as organizations specializing in design and prospecting. They not only developed the material-technical foundation for the industry, but also trained required specialists. It can be said that the construction industry has worked its way up from the erection of primitive caves to modern sky-scrapers and complicated industrial complexes, from mattocks and hand instruments to up-to-date machinery and technological equipment.
Construction has a key role to play in the economic life of Uzbekistan. The country’s leaders are devoting special attention to its development at a rapid pace. In his book “Uzbekistan: its own model of transition to market relationships”, President Karimov accentuates in particular: “The existing construction base, combined with the construction industry’s capacity and long-term experience, make it possible, provided sufficient investment resources are available, to fulfill all restructuring plans and serve as a reliable foundation for the Republic’s further effective growth”.
Today, construction is a manufacturing industry. It receives a significant portion of state and non-state (private, foreign) investments, which later on materialize in production and non-production assets. Last year, for example, over 73 per cent of all capital investments implemented in the Republic was directed to industrial construction. And the industry’s achievements and developments are as impressive as the investment volume itself: 154 big facilities were put into operation; the third section of the Central Asia – China gas pipeline came on stream; 540 kilometers of motor roads for general use were built or overhauled. The industry pressed ahead with projects to build an electrified railway line between the towns of Angren and Pap, to modernize the Syrdarya Thermoelectric Power Station, to build a zinc plan etc.
It is necessary to emphasize not only the industrial-innovation step of the construction sector, but also its scale. Indeed, the scale of construction, especially house-building, in rural areas of Uzbekistan is impressive. In 2014, as many as 11,000 new standard dwelling houses were erected in keeping with the State Mass-Scale House Construction Program. Most of them are comfortable and light brick houses, decorated with modern building and roofing materials. Their quality and level of comfort are not inferior to any urban apartment.
Over the years of independence, the country’s available housing resources have swelled by 1.9 times. Britain’s The Economist ranks the Uzbek capital city – Tashkent 58th out of the world’s 140 biggest and most comfortable cities, in terms of the quality of residence. A 500-m bridge recently erected near the Khadra Square and a refurbished underground transport tunnel linking the Furkat Street with Sebzar and Zarkainar Streets have become the real adornments of Tashkent. A unique, state-of-the-art masterpiece of national planning and construction, this tunnel not only creates enormous conveniences for transport and people and improves the surrounding landscape, it also demonstrates the firm step of innovation in the construction industry and the national economy at large. The growing number of such buildings and installations is testament to the correctness of Amir Temur’s dictum: “If you want to see the power of my state, come and look at the buildings and structures, temples, monuments and bridges erected on its territory”.
Construction, as an asset-forming industry, has been developing both quantitatively and qualitatively, facilitating the development of other sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, transport and communications, improving infrastructure and reinforcing the material and technical bases of science, education, public health etc.
The State Program “On priorities in the development of manufacturing of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the period 2011-2015” provides a good example of the role played by the construction industry in the successful implementation of a given document. The Program stipulates the realization of more than 500 investment projects, worth almost US $50 billion. Since manufacturing is the economy’s foundation for innovations, the current trends will continue in the field of innovation. The Presidential Decree, “On the Program of measures to ensure restructuring, modernization and diversification of production in the period 2015-2019” dated March 4th 2015 presses ahead with innovation-boosting measures. The document contains 846 investment projects on modernization, and technical and technological upgrading of production facilities, to the tune of over US $40 billion. In the current year the Uzbek government plans to direct some US $16 billion worth of capital investments to the development of the national economy. And industrial construction accounts for about 74.5 per cent of this amount. Participation of foreign investments in all restructuring projects that are unfolding in the country’s economy is expected to expand by 11.2 per cent, thus representing 22.1 per cent of the total amount of investments due to be implemented in Uzbekistan.
Agricultural construction also provides promising prospects for growth at a faster pace. As the head of our state observed: “The countryside is the link in the economy and social life, and consequently in politics, through which the entire Republic will come to prosperity and welfare. If local peasant is well-to-do, the whole Republic will be wealthy”. If industrial construction is aimed at industrialization of the rural economy, mobilization of all the reserves and potentialities available in the agrarian sector and a better provision of manufacturing with raw materials and the population – with foodstuffs, the house- building sector’s priority will remain in the construction of modern cottages with personal plots and all necessary household structures attached to them. The construction industry will make a sizable contribution not only to the efforts to overcome the national farming’s predominantly cotton orientation, but also to the elimination of the former unequal boundaries between rural and urban standards of living.
There are also good prospects for strong growth in construction of arterial roads and highways, which should meet all stringent modern requirements and be linked with international routes and communications. The sector is guided in its activities by the Presidential Resolution, “On speeding up the development of infrastructure in transport and communications construction in the period 2011-2015” as of December 2nd 2010. A 652-km motor road for international use, Guzar – Bukhara – Nukus – Beineu, will run across the territory of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The current year will see the rehabilitation of railway tracks, with their total length coming to 260 kilometers, construction of a new 124-km electrified section of the railroad Angren – Pap, electrification of two railway sections: Marakand – Karshi (140 km) and Karshi – Termez (325 km) and implementation of the second stage of the Djizak – Yangier section electrification project. In addition, attendant infrastructural facilities are being created on the country’s transport roads, including modern bridges, traffic lights, filling stations, aid posts and road service centers etc.
One can say with certainty that all the steps taken today in the national economy are in line with the Complex Program for the Development of the National Information-Communications System of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the period 2013-2020.
As a result of the enormous constructive work, whose rate and scope are increasing year on year, the Republic of Uzbekistan is now regarded as one of the happiest nations in the world. Measured by the World Index of Happiness, it ranks 44th out of 158 countries and 1st among the CIS member states. It should be observed that the countries with a higher rating of happiness than Uzbekistan proclaimed independence 100 or even 200 years ago. As for Uzbekistan, it has achieved such a high level over a short period of time – less than a quarter of a century. Comment is superfluous, indeed.
(Source: «Business partner.uz» newspaper)
10th Sharq Taronalari International Music Festival
Sharq Taronalari: The Music Crown Much Longed For
With the passage of every day we get closer to the much-awaited celebration of music – the traditional Sharq Taronalari International Festival. The event is to take place in Samarkand on the eve of the 24th anniversary of national independence – on August 25-30 this year. Its history began in 1997, when, at the initiative of President Islam Karimov, the music of diverse peoples started to sound under the vault of the Registan. This time around it will be the tenth festival, the jubilee one. At a press conference held in Samarkand’s Ulughbek Madrassah, the organizers told the journalists about what it will be like and what it has been preparing for the connoisseurs of folk music.
The charming ancient Samarkand looks forward to meeting the music forum, which promises to grant new impressions and introduction to beautiful melodies and songs of the peoples of the world. Music has from time immemorial been closely tied to the most cherished feelings of people by being an indispensable part of their lives. And, most probably, it is not incidental that the title of the Sharq Taronalari (Melodies of the East) International Music Festival was built by this very word that has the most profound sense for our nation who has preserved the richest national and music traditions. Here, for over centuries, people used to conduct ritual clean-over before listening to music, paying tribute to its purity and primal nature of its origin. This music is simple but wise, and its philosophy is deep and profound.
Today, the Sharq Taronalari Festival is one of the most prestigious international forums and is acknowledged by UNESCO as the biggest music festival in the East. Of great interest for the musicians from the entire world are the contest of national performance and the conference during which the academics from many nations exchange views in the field of music art.
The festival’s organizers are the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the National Television and Radio Company, the Union of Composers of Uzbekistan and the Hokimiyat (provincial administration) of the Samarkand Region. The festival is held under the auspices of UNESCO, and it has become a good tradition that leaders of this international organization take part in it. In particular, the UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova attended the event in 2013.
With the passage of every day we get closer to the much-awaited celebration of music – the traditional Sharq Taronalari International Festival. The event is to take place in Samarkand on the eve of the 24th anniversary of national independence – on August 25-30 this year. Its history began in 1997, when, at the initiative of President Islam Karimov, the music of diverse peoples started to sound under the vault of the Registan. This time around it will be the tenth festival, the jubilee one. At a press conference held in Samarkand’s Ulughbek Madrassah, the organizers told the journalists about what it will be like and what it has been preparing for the connoisseurs of folk music.
The charming ancient Samarkand looks forward to meeting the music forum, which promises to grant new impressions and introduction to beautiful melodies and songs of the peoples of the world. Music has from time immemorial been closely tied to the most cherished feelings of people by being an indispensable part of their lives. And, most probably, it is not incidental that the title of the Sharq Taronalari (Melodies of the East) International Music Festival was built by this very word that has the most profound sense for our nation who has preserved the richest national and music traditions. Here, for over centuries, people used to conduct ritual clean-over before listening to music, paying tribute to its purity and primal nature of its origin. This music is simple but wise, and its philosophy is deep and profound.
Today, the Sharq Taronalari Festival is one of the most prestigious international forums and is acknowledged by UNESCO as the biggest music festival in the East. Of great interest for the musicians from the entire world are the contest of national performance and the conference during which the academics from many nations exchange views in the field of music art.
The festival’s organizers are the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the National Television and Radio Company, the Union of Composers of Uzbekistan and the Hokimiyat (provincial administration) of the Samarkand Region. The festival is held under the auspices of UNESCO, and it has become a good tradition that leaders of this international organization take part in it. In particular, the UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova attended the event in 2013.
Currently, the preparations for the festival are in full swing in Samarkand. All the necessary conditions and conveniences for its participants are being created there for the gala occasion to be organized at a high level. One of the most colorful events within the festival is anticipated to be the official opening ceremony. The renovation works at the Registan amphitheater and stage are in progress now. A grand and interesting program of the show, which is going to present all the great diversity of vocal and dancing art of the people and ethnic groups of Uzbekistan, is being prepared under the leadership of the chief director Bahodir Yuldashev.
As the executive director of the Sharq Taronalari Festival Turabek Mahmudov has suggested, “the geography of the music holiday has expanded this year to a great extent, indicative of the growth in the prestige and eminence of the Samarkand forum. The first festival was attended by representatives of 31 countries, whereas art figures from 53 nations took part in the ninth festival. Representatives of 65 states have already confirmed their willingness to take part in this jubilee festival. The administration of the festival continues to receive applications, discs, audio and video recordings with the performance of musicians desiring to become its participants. This year, art connoisseurs from Portugal, Mauritius, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Mali, Peru and Ecuador are going to perform on the Registan stage. Therefore, Asia will be represented by 28 people, Europe by 21, America by 5 and Africa by 12 persons this time around. The number of participants will thus total 324, including leading music scholars, art directors, chiefs of international festivals, representatives of foreign media and more than a hundred performers.”
As the established tradition goes, performances of artistic people are to be assessed by an authoritative international jury. The latter contains the People’s Artist of Uzbekistan Munojat Yulchieva and the renowned music academic, the Honored Art Figure, Professor Otanazar Matyakubov.
For the five days that the festival will last, the music is going to sound by filling all the space of the legendary city and its surroundings. Major performances are to take place at the principal stage of the Registan Square. Also, the musicians will demonstrate their art skills in the parks of culture and leisure as well as the districts of the province that will host concert programs of participants, Uzbek masters of art and artistic groups. Creativity nights are to be organized, as well.
“One of the most important components of the festival is the international academic conference that is traditionally held within the frameworks of the festival,” Professor Rustambek Abdullaev, doctor of arts, has said. “This year’s topic of the conference is “The Community of the Musical Culture of the Peoples of the East”. 20 scientists – music scholars, critics, theoreticians – are to arrive from 15 countries from around the globe to discuss issues related to the preservation and promotion of the ages-old musical traditions of the peoples of the world.”
According to the organizers of the festival, the ancient Samarkand will appear before the guests from abroad even more charming. Deriving from the garnered experience, even more comfortable conditions for performers and spectators are being created at the Registan Square. The beautification and greening works are underway in the city. In the hotels that will accommodate the participants, as well as in the Ulughbek Madrassah and museums, the organizers intend to arrange exhibitions of photographs, national music instruments, costumes, works of visual art and national trades.
Years and centuries pass, epochs change. But what remains intact is the high art that brings peoples closer to one another. And today, like it used to be in ancient times, when people used to meet on the Great Silk Road and demonstrate their arts and cultures, the Sharq Taronalari Festival fulfills an important mission that facilitates the preservation and further promotion of the traditional music of the East.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
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