Ten of Uzbek Wrestlers came home with medals. 4
economy
Intensifying the attraction of foreign direct investments to the priority sectors of the national economy
The directions prioritized for the economic reforms, which are carried out in Uzbekistan on a consistent basis, are as follows: the inculcation of innovative technologies, large-scale modernization, technical and technological renovation of production facilities and an increase in output’s competitiveness.
To secure the achievement of these objectives, an appropriate legislative and regulatory-legal framework has been created in the Republic.
The 15th December, 2010 Presidential Resolution approves the large-scale Program, “On priorities of industrial development in the period 2011-2015”. The document envisages the realization of 519 big investment projects, estimated at US $47.3 billion, to turn out industrial produce with high value added owing to the deep processing of local raw materials and mineral resources.
As a consequence, the overall production volume of manufactured goods has swelled 1.4-fold between 2011 and 2015, with an average annual rate of growth in the manufacturing industry exceeding 8 per cent.
The Presidential Decree, “On the program of measures to ensure restructuring, modernization and diversification of production in the period 2015-2019” dated 4th March 2015 has become a logical continuation of the uninterrupted process of upgrading and inculcating innovative technologies in manufacturing.
The document aims to ensure the step-by-step implementation of structural reforms, modernization and diversification of production, further development of high-tech sectors, more efficient utilization of available reserves in order to decrease the output’s energy capacity and material and labour costs, expansion of the range of competitive finished product lines and semi-finished goods, as well as the attraction of foreign investments towards the realization of all these purposes, including the establishment, jointly with the world’s leading foreign companies, joint venture enterprises on a parity basis.
A given Program stipulates the implementation of 846 investment projects to modernize local production facilities and to ensure their technical and technological renovation, to the tune of about US $41.0 billion. These projects include:
– 711 new investment projects, to be launched in the period 2015-2019, whose total value comes to US $19.64 billion and whose investors and sources of funding have already been determined;
– 135 promising priority projects, worth US $21.17 billion, to be implemented with the help of investments and credits attracted from abroad.
Within the framework of this Program, over 100 new commodity groups and more than 1,000 product lines will be put into production in the indicated period (2015-2019). What’s more, production volumes of manufactured output will be increased 1.5-fold, with its share of GDP growing from 24.4 per cent to 27 per cent.
The most essential investment, enabling the country to attain a dynamic and balanced pace of economic growth, to realize cardinal structural reforms and to diversify the national economy, is an active purposeful investment policy carried out by the Uzbek government.
The total amount of investments lured to the Republic’s economy over the years of independence, reached US $190 billion. Of this, more than US $65 billion is foreign capital.
As the President Islam Karimov of the Republic of Uzbekistan stressed at a sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan held on 16th January 2015 and dedicated to the results of the nation’s socio-economic development and main priorities of the 2015 Economic Program, the distinctive peculiarity of the country’s investment policy lies in the fact that only those investment projects are prioritized, which are aimed at creating new high-tech production facilities capable of ensuring the deep processing of local raw resources. In 2014, as many as 154 big factories have been put into service in some leading sectors of the national economy. Worth US $4.2 billion, all of them are outfitted with up-to-date high-tech equipment.
As a telling example of strategically vital projects, let’s take the ongoing investment project, “Construction of the Ustyurt Gas-Chemical Complex on the basis of the Surgil deposit with the subsequent development of the deposit”. The enterprise is planned to provide the deep processing of raw hydrocarbons and to arrange the production of highly liquid and competitive, both domestically and abroad, finished polymer-based goods at the modern gas-chemical complex.
The implementation of a given project, whose cost stands at about US $3.9 billion, will make it possible to turn out 387,000 tons of polyethylene, 83,000 tons of polypropylene, 3.8 billion c. m. of tradable gas, 102,000 tons of pyrolysis distillate and 8,000 tons of pyrolysis oil by processing 4.5 billion c. m. of natural gas using advanced technology. In that way, the gas-chemical complex, ranking high among the world’s similar facilities, will be in a position to manufacture Euro-4 standard diesel fuel.
With a view to moving forward on the work to further diversify the production of mineral fertilizers and to boost the chemical industry’s export potential through the construction of new facilities that will specialize in turning out the nitrogen-phosphor-potassium compound fertilizer (NPK) on the basis of local raw resources and modern technologies, a large-scale investment project, called “The organization of NPK-compound production at OOO Samarkand NPK” will be launched soon. The facility’s production capacity is expected to reach 240,000 tons.
The project’s total cost of US $17.5 million will be covered by direct investments made by Jiangsu Right Machinery Group, a Chinese company, and a credit line provided by Uzpromstroybank.
In an effort to develop the country’s generating capacity, to inculcate modern energy-saving technology and to increase the reliability of power supply to domestic consumers, the Uzbek government is now busy implementing a program aimed at upgrading the existing power-generating facilities and building new ones in the power-engineering industry with the application of up-and-coming power-production technologies, including within the framework of the 2015 Investment Program of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In particular, there are plans to realize projects to construct steam-gas and gas-turbine plants with the aggregate established capacity of 3,120 mWt.
It is appropriate to mention here that the heat-power stations currently in operation in Uzbekistan came on-stream in the 1970s; they are characterized by low efficiency and high energy-intensity (the intensity-of-use coefficient of reference fuel comes to 400 gr/kWt/h).
The consistent implementation of measures to modernize the existing power-generating capacities and to create new ones will allows the Republic to substantially decrease the expenditure of fuel needed for the generation of electricity and thermal energy, thanks to the inculcation of up-to-date power-saving steam-gas plants. This, in turn, will minimize the negative impact of power production on the environment. According to parameters, their expenditure of reference fuel comes to 230-240 gr/Wt/h. When put into operation, they will help to save up to 360 million c. m. of fuel a year.
In 2012, a steam-gas plant became up and running at the Navoi Thermal Power Station. Made by Mitsubishi, the world’s renowned firm, a given steam-gas plant’s capacity is 478 mWt. Today, the second stage of this project is under way, which envisages the installation of a second steam-gas plant, whose capacity reaches 450 mWt.
And more than that, the Program stipulates the construction of two 450-mWt steam-gas plants at the Talimardjan Thermal Power Station and the Turakurgan Thermal Power Station; a 370 mWt steam-gas plant at the Tashkent TPS and two steam-gas plants (230-250 kWt) at the Takhiatash TPS. In all the projects, the attraction of advanced technologies from the world’s leading companies is planned. As for their funding, the costs will be met by Uzbekistan operating in conjunction with a number of international and governmental financial institutions, like the Asian Development Bank, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the State Development Bank of China.
One of the priority tasks for all sectors of the national economy is the efficient and economical use of power resources, which implies, among other things, the replacement of physically and morally obsolete production capacities with those based on modern energy-saving technologies.
Nowadays, several leading international organizations, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the UN Development Program, and some foreign governments participate in the realization and funding of the indicated measures and investment projects to inculcate up-to-date electricity- and gas-saving machinery in manufacturing.
The first credit line allocated by the International Development Association has been used to meet the cost of investment projects to the tune of US $24 million. Those projects have been carried out in several industries, such as mining, oil-and-gas, power engineering and the chemical sector. Their implementation is expected to save upwards of 152 million kWt/h of electricity and 40 million c. m. of natural gas.
For the time being, the Republic of Uzbekistan maintains cooperation with the World Bank in realizing and financing projects, valued at US $100 million, to introduce power-saving technologies.
The opportune realization of the afore-cited measures designed to boost the attraction of foreign direct investments and advanced technology to the priority industries of the national economy will result in the country’s rapid economic development, maintenance of high rates of economic growth, modernization and diversification of the leading sectors as well as in the creation of new jobs.
(Source: «Business partner.uz» newspaper)
sport
Ten of Uzbek Wrestlers came home with medals
The 13th World Kurash Wrestling Championship has completed in Kazan, Russia. Thirteen athletes represented Uzbekistan and ten of them came home with medals.
Obidali Mavlonov, the current world champion, was among the top favorites to win the championship. Each of his opponents had the desire to beat the champion, but the Uzbek athlete was able to retain his title. On the other hand, Elbek Sotivoldiev won his first-ever gold medal. Nozimjon Ibrohimjonov won a bronze medal last year, but this time he came in second.
Husnuddin Ruziyev was a bit unlucky, as the champion lost his title and came in only third. Our veteran heavyweight wrestler Golib Ahmedov also won a bronze medal at the world championship in Kazan.
“Ten years ago, we became a member of the International Federation of Belted Kurash,” said the general secretary of Uzbekistan Federation of Belbogli Kurash, Abduhalil Malikov. “This national martial art is very old and is part of national customs and traditions. Belbogli Kurash tournaments are held during celebrations of national holidays. Thousands of fans gather to spectate fights between the palvans (wrestlers). Belted Kurash sections and clubs are open not only in youth academies, but also in secondary schools, colleges, and there is an office in the Uzbek State Institute of Physical Culture. Total number of the people engaged in this sport has exceeded 40 thousand in Uzbekistan. Branches of the federation are active in all regions of the country. But before the advent of independence, belbogli (belted) Kurash was cultivated only in the Fergana Valley, Tashkent and Syrdarya regions.
This sport was not practiced in Khorezm. But, Bekbergan Boltaev, a kurash enthusiast, helped launch a local branch office of the federation and now this is one of the most actively developing regions in terms of kurash. Together with his disciplines, the student of the penultimate year of the Uzbek State Institute of Physical Culture is organizing competitions and hosting kurash festivals. This local school of kurash has become strong as Zamira Ahmedova, their own student, became the world champion among the youth and the adults, and two year ago the same title had been awarded to Rahmatjon Shamuradov.
In the Chirchik College of the Olympic Reserve, Usman and Iskander Mahmatovs train young wrestlers. Iskander is still successfully competing in various competitions. The highlight of his career is the win over the four-time world champion Shamil Sardiev of Russia. Chirchik now has its own belbogli kurash school, and this is very important. Next year, we are planning to host a major international tournament. And the city is one of the main contenders for hosting this event.”
“This year, we have conducted twelve competitions among kids and adults,” says Abduhalil Malikov. “All regions participated in these events. This type of wrestling has been included in the program of the 2017 Asian Indoor Games that will be held in Turkmenistan. Next year, aworld championship among adults will be held in Kyrgyzstan, among juniors in Kazakhstan and the Asian Championship will be held in Turkmenistan. Starting from 2019 belted kurash will also be included in the program of the summer Universiade.”
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
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