INFORMATION DIGEST OF PRESS OF UZBEKISTAN # 180

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INFORMATION DIGEST OF PRESS OF UZBEKISTAN # 180

investments. 2

Foreign investments in the development of automobile construction and manufacturing of agricultural machinery  2

FINANCE.. 3

In the first half of 2015, total deposits in the commercial banks of Uzbekistan increased by 30.2%   3


investments

Foreign investments in the development of automobile construction and manufacturing of agricultural machinery

Today, automobile construction and agricultural machine-building are dynamically developing industries in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

One of the main priorities pursued by the country’s automobile construction sector is the introduction in mass production of modern car models, which can meet a whole set of international requirements imposed on safety, quality and ecological characteristics.

In a move to fuller satisfy the home market’s demand for automobiles as well as to expand the national export potential, several projects are now under way to master the production of new car models on the basis of advanced high technologies.

It should observed that the Program of Priority Measures for the period 2015-2019 aimed at perfecting the production and putting into production new types of competitive goods, provides for the implementation of 14 projects, to the tune of US $400 million. Particular attention is now focused on the production of brake-system elements, electrical switches, springs for suspension brackets, safety belts for automobiles, low-powered electrical motors and acoustic systems.

The automobile industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan is represented by the Joint-Stock Company Uzavtosanoat, which, in turn, encompasses 75 enterprises and organizations, including a branch of the Turin Polytechnic University, a higher educational establishment.

The production structure of Uzavtosanoat consists of the following blocks:

  1. Production of automobiles:

– ZAO General Motor Uzbekistan turns out car models such as Malibu, Captiva, Orlando, Gentra, Cobalt, Spark and Matiz. The company’s annual production capacity is 250,000 automobiles. These days, the localization level of separate car models  made by GM Uzbekistan reaches 80 per cent;

  1. Production of commercial automobiles:

– JV OOO MAN Auto-Uzbekistan manufactures large-capacity motor lorries under the “MAN” trademark. Its annual production capacity comes to 3,000 vehicles. At present, customers can purchase the lorries made by JV OOO MAN Auto-Uzbekistan, have their vehicles repaired and maintained. In addition, they can buy original spare parts and components for their lorries.

At large, the strategy designed to enlarge the production capacity of JV OOO MAN Auto-Uzbekistan is developing dynamically, opening up additional economic opportunities like the development of new product categories, creation of new jobs, a rapid production growth, and presentation of the country’s industrial potentialities in the world marketplace;

– JV OOO SamAvto makes low- and medium-capacity motor lorries, buses under the “ISUZU” trademark and urban low-floor buses LE-60.  The enterprise’s annual production capacity amounts to 4,000 vehicles.

  1. Production of components for automobiles:

– ZAO JV General Motors Powertrain Uzbekistan manufactures automobile motors that correspond to the Euro-5 standards. Enjoying the annual production capacity of 250,000 motors, the enterprise is currently capable of exporting a portion of its output to South Korea, China and Indonesia.

More than 30 enterprises have been built in this sector of the national economy with the participation of investors from South Korea, India, Germany, China and other countries. All these facilities produce a whole spectrum of automobile components and spare parts.

  1. Agricultural machine-building

It is necessary to emphasize that agriculture is a leading industry of the Uzbek economy and, as such, plays a key role in the country’s socio-economic stability.

The agricultural machine-building sector of Uzbekistan is represented by the Holding Company Uzagrosanoatmashholding, incorporating 8 large-scale production enterprises. These include:

AO “Tashkentsky Zavod Selskokhozyastvennoy Tekhniki” (Tashkent Plant of Agricultural Equipment), AO “Chirchiksky Zavod of Selskokhozayastvennoy Tekhniki” (Chirchik Plant of Agricultural Equipment), AO “Agregatniy Zavod”, AO “Technolog”, AO “Urgenchkormmash”, AO “BMKB-Agromash”, OOO UzClaasAgro and OOO Lemken Chirchik.

The enterprises operating in the sector manufacture tractors, trailers, harvester-threshers, cotton-picking machines, various types of soil-cultivating, sowing, forage-harvesting and spraying machinery for farming. Today, a number of big joint ventures carry out successful production activity in the agricultural machine-building industry. These include:

– JV OOO UzClaasAgro makes the following types of agricultural machinery: tractors Axos 340C, Arion 630C, Axion 850C, Xerion as well as harvester-threshers Claas Dominator. This joint venture has been taking consistent steps to further raise the level of localization, which now reaches 50 per cent;

– JV OOO Lemken Chirchik, in conjunction with Lemken GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), assembles 6 types of soil-cultivators. Today, JV OOO Lemken Chirchik produces swing plows EurOpal 73+1 N100, EurOpal 74+1 N100 and VariOpal 95+1 No100, rotary harrows Zirkon 8/250, soil packers VarioPack 110 WDP 70 and mechanical sowing machines Saphir 7/300 DS.

At present, the enterprise is working hard on the expansion of its range of listed products and achievement of an increase in its production volumes;

– Starting 2014, AO Tashkent Plant of Agricultural Equipment turns out cotton-picking machines MX-1,8. Besides, by enlisting the services of LSMtron (South Korea), the enterprise has mastered the large-nodule assembly of 6 tractor modifications;

– OOO Agregat-Agrotech (the founder AO “Agregatny Zavod”), in cooperation with Kuhn (France), Fede (Spain), Rauch (Germany) and Grimme (Germany), assembles various types of agricultural machinery, with the subsequent localization of production of its spare parts.

The Program of Priority Measures for the period 2015-2019, which is intended to improve the production and to master new types of competitive goods, stipulates the implementation of 6 projects to the tune of US $150 million. Special attention is paid to the production of gardening tractors, potato diggers, trailers with increased volumes, motor-blocks, new types of soil-cultivating, sowing and forage-harvesting machinery and special equipment for the fruit- and wine-growing sectors.

The prospects of the agricultural-machinery market in Uzbekistan are very promising, with the possibilities of exporting the output to contiguous countries expanding from year to year.

The Republic’s highly propitious investment environment and a wide system of privileges for enterprises with foreign investments, plus the accelerated development of farms facilitate the development of joint ventures set up with foreign partners in Uzbekistan.

(Source: «Business partner.uz» newspaper)

FINANCE

In the first half of 2015, total deposits in the commercial banks of Uzbekistan increased by 30.2%

Experts often say that the growth of bank deposits, especially among individuals, evidence of the stability of the country’s financial system, and confidence of the population and businesses in the future. Deputy Director of the Licensing and Credit Institutions Department of the Central Bank Jahongir Abdurasulov has introduced the UT reporter to the depositary and interest policy of domestic banks, the deposits they offer, and their importance for the growth of the national economy.

In the first half of 2015, total deposits in the commercial banks of Uzbekistan increased by 30.2%, exceeding 31.5 trillion soums (currency rates of CB RU from 08.09.2015   1$= 2605.83 soums ).

Over the past five years, the residual deposit growth rates in domestic commercial banks have exceeded 30%. This is a clear evidence of the increase in real incomes, strengthened confidence in the banking system, as well as the effectiveness of the measures on stimulation of channeling free financial resources. It is important to understand that these funds, figuratively speaking, are not stored in the vaults, but work as the main source of investments for accelerated development of the economy, and hence, improvement of the living standards of the population.

Robust competition in the Uzbek financial market motivates commercial banks to seek for making their services more effective, and expand their range. For example, banks offer individuals and businesses the increasingly advantageous investments and deposits in order to expand their share in the market. The Presidential Resolution ‘On the conduct of a competition in deposit channeling among commercial banks’ has become an important incentive. The competition has created new opportunities to improve the quality and expand the types of banking services, especially in view of the supply and demand of individuals.

Today, banks offer their customers more than 250 types of deposits in national and foreign currency. The funds may be deposited in cash or non-cash, or transferred from personal accounts in foreign banks.

There is an interesting fact: deposits are actively used by the elderly. In its latest survey on the use of banking services, the International Monetary Fund ranked Uzbekistan the first among CIS states in the number of deposits of the elderly population.

The use of other deposit instruments like securities, bonds with specified par value and terms of repayment with fixed interest, deposits and stock certificates with the opportunity of receiving the amount of the deposit and the contractual interest at a specified term has been increasingly getting popular. Debt securities suggest certain benefits to their holders unlike to traditional deposits – sale, donation, depositing as a share, as well as pledge as collateral to the authorized capital of an economic entity.

One of the benefits of deposits in commercial banks of Uzbekistan, unlike many other countries, comes to facts that the income is not taxed, and the sources are not subject to declaration. Besides, personal accounts and cash deposits of individuals as the most liquid and profitable types of placement of funds, as well as deposit operations, are subject to banking secrecy. It is important that all funds of individuals placed on deposit accounts of commercial banks are protected by the state regardless of their amount.

The population incomes growth rates and the situation in the market challenge the banks with changing and optimizing their deposit policies. They successfully develop and implement innovative long-term deposit programs by means of information and communication technologies, expand the volumes of non-cash payments, increase the number of payment terminals and plastic cards.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)

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