INFORMATION DIGEST OF PRESS OF UZBEKISTAN # 248

“Investment portal of Uzbekistan”

Citizens of 76 countries will be able to get an electronic visa to Uzbekistan (List)

Uzbekistan announces visa waiver for citizens of 45 countries (List)

Important Visa Information for Indian Citizens Travelling to Uzbekistan

December 12, 2014

INFORMATION DIGEST OF PRESS OF UZBEKISTAN # 248

December12, 2014

economy.. 2

Ministry of Economy: 930.5 thousand workplaces created in Uzbekistan since the beginning of the year2

BUSINESS CLIMATE.. 2

The institutional support of small business. 2

14th international competition of Italian opera.. 5

Uzbekistan’s Barno Ismatullayeva Comes out Winner of Competizione dell’Opera. 5

 

 

 

economy

Ministry of Economy: 930.5 thousand workplaces created in Uzbekistan since the beginning of the year

According to the information service of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in January-November of this year in the framework of the creation of jobs and providing employment, 930.5 thousand workplaces (1.7% higher than envisaged forecast parameters) have been created.

The largest number of workplaces is created in Samarkand (88.7 thous jobs), Fergana (86.6 thous), Kashkadarya (83.0 thous), Tashkent (82.7 thous), Andijan (74.9 thous), Namangan (72.0 thous), Bukhara (70.7 thous) regions and in Tashkent (85.9 thous).

(Source: UzReport.uz)

BUSINESS CLIMATE

The institutional support of small business

Small entrepreneurship is one of the significant factors influencing a range of things, such as a pace of economic growth, the state of a population’s employment and the quality of gross national product.

The development of small business proves critical to the formation of a competitive economy, which consists of various types of property and an economic model that is commensurate to them. Only a competitive economy is well-positioned to accomplish the complicated synthesis of a highly competitive market mechanism and the state regulation of big- and small-scale production.

The small business sector facilitates the expansion of the middle class, unanimously viewed as a pillar of the state’s stability and prosperity. Small-scale entrepreneurship mobilizes a population’s financial and production resources, providing means of subsistence to a greater number of people than big business does. Moreover, small business enjoys a substantial potential in terms of both employment and attraction to manufacturing of those manpower reserves that cannot be used in large-scale production, owing to the force of their technological or other peculiarities. All this suggests that small business should be of considerable interest as a subject of state regulation.

The transition to a market economy requires the root-and-branch transformation of a country’s entire economic infrastructure and, above all, demonopolization.

Small enterprises may assist to reform the socio-economic structure of society, to change a monopolistic pattern of economic relationships and to create a suitable environment for the development of market relationships and competition.

In the past few years, the state has made much to boost the development of small business and private entrepreneurship. The steps taken by the authorities in this direction include a tangible restriction of the state’s interference into the sector’s economic activity, a substantial simplification of a registration procedure for small enterprises, the reduction of tax rates, the improvement of produce standardization and certification systems, the provision of domestic entrepreneurs with free access to material-technical resources thanks to the development of auctions, and the introduction of novel forms of crediting for entrepreneurs, such as micro-credit and micro-leasing.

A great number of regulatory, departmental and normative documents and resolutions have been issued in the Republic of Uzbekistan of late, specifically intended to give the go-ahead to enterprising people, who seek to start their own business as well as to protect them against numerous check-ups by authorities of every description.

Streamlining the official registration of private firms and small enterprises has made it possible to cut the procedure’s duration. For the time being, it takes them one or two days to get registered, compared with several weeks previously.

This and other factors have been conducive to the creation and development of new firms, enterprises and farms.

As a result of such reforms, small business and private entrepreneurship to date play a key role in modernizing the country’s national economy. Strong economic figures seem to support this view.

In 2013, small businesses accounted for 55.8 per cent of the nation’s GDP, up 3.3 per cent on the 2010 level.

In the year in question, the sector of small business and private entrepreneurship boasted the following achievements:

o    Accounted for 74.8 per cent of labour reserves employed in the national economy as a whole;

o    Manufactured 24.8 per cent of total industrial output, compared with 18.8 per cent in 2010;

o    Implemented 33.5 per cent of all investments available in the Republic, against 28.5 per cent recorded in 2010;

o    Increased their share of the country’s total exports from 4.3 per cent in 2010 to 18 per cent in 2013.

Furthermore, the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan set up several organizations, whose main objective is to facilitate the attraction of indigenous enterprises, including small ones, to export activity.

Three years ago, Uztadbirkorexport, a specialized foreign trade company, and the Exports Promotion Bureau have been founded at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investment and Trade and the Uzstandart Agency, respectively.

Unlike other foreign trade companies, which, by the way, also render assistance to small businesses, among their primary specializations, Uztadbirkorexport is involved directly in helping the Uzbek entrepreneurs to penetrate foreign markets.

In particular, the company renders information, legal and intermediary services as an agent – contract-holder. Its major assets are high-caliber specialists and experts, who “accompany” the entire process of export activity – from studying a market and conducting negotiations with potential buyers in foreign languages to elaborating logistics schemes and signing contracts.

In the course of its three-year performance, Uztadbirkorexport has managed to markedly expand its infrastructure, both domestically and abroad. Today, its representative offices operate in all regions of Uzbekistan. Besides, the company runs three trading houses overseas: in the Baltic Sea region, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Last year, the Specialized Foreign Trade Company, Uztadbirkorexport helped more than 100 indigenous entrepreneurs to export their produce.

The Exports Promotion Bureau at the Uzstandart Agency is entrusted with the following tasks: to provide free consultations on international and country requirements to domestic manufacturers of export-oriented goods; to work out proposals on the introduction of international standards for locally-made commodities and the achievement by their producers of correspondence to international and country requirements; to develop and introduce requirements for standardization, certification, marking and packing of produce etc.

In the first six months of 2014, 443 enterprises used advisory services rendered by the Bureau. Moreover, since 2009, the Exports Promotion Bureau joined hands with the Uzstandart Agency to install quality control systems at 1,100-plus enterprises across the Republic.

In 2013, one more organization of the kind was created in Uzbekistan. It is the Exports Support Fund for Small Business and Private Entrepreneurship set up at the National Bank of Foreign Economic Activity of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in line with the Presidential Resolution No ПП-2022, “On additional measures to back exports by small business and private entrepreneurship” dated 8th August 2013.

The Fund’s major objectives are as follows: to encourage the further expansion of exports potentialities available in the sector, to provide small enterprises and entrepreneurs with legal, financial and organizational assistance in swelling production volumes of modern goods that can withstand fierce competition in the international marketplace, to promote their exportables, as well as to ensure the reliable protection of Uzbek exporters from the risks posed by the changes in the state of foreign markets.

The Exports Support Fund renders the following financial, organizational and legal services: the organization of participation of small businesses and farms in overseas exhibitions and fairs; the organization of their participation in international tenders; the provision of assistance in obtaining the required documentation, concluding exports contacts, insurance, promoting their goods (works or services) to foreign markets, obtaining the required licences, certificates and other permissions etc.

Indeed, the tasks entrusted to the likes of Uztadbirkorexport, the Exports Support Fund for Small Business and Private Entrepreneurship and other foreign trade companies are similar in many respects: to find customers, to study the demand and supply situation at home and abroad, to tackle a range of organizational and financial problems etc. But it is only on the surface that their tasks may seem similar. Though they coincide in terms of economic efficiency, their contents differ considerably.

The fundamental difference lies in the fact that Uztadbirkorexport is a foreign trade company, whereas the Fund is a foundation with a large amount of capital. Correspondingly, the latter is better positioned to finance small businesses, farms and private entrepreneurs before they start exporting their produce. Export deliveries based on the principle of outsourcing consists of three successive links: marketing, production and sending. Uztadbirkorexport specializes, in the first place, in the legal organization and implementation of finished-goods deliveries to foreign customers. It is a final stage of the exportation process. To initiate a given process is the Fund’s job, which will carry out marketing studies of home and overseas markets and back the most profitable export-oriented projects with free financial support , with the only aim in mind – to boost the export activity in the sector of small business and private entrepreneurship.

Large-scale marketing studies count on long-term contracts, where emphasis is laid on the entire market, rather than on single customers. As commercial practices show, the volume of annual receipts generated by a long-term contract may be estimated at millions of dollars.

There are hundreds of enterprises in Uzbekistan that are capable of achieving such indicators. What’s more, there are thousands of potentially feasible projects and small businesses, which can join the ranks of exporters if backed financially in obtaining and registering a required package of exports documents. So, identifying prospects for the conclusion of long-term contracts and forging business ties constitute the essential aspects of exports-development endeavors. Figuratively speaking, the Exports Support Fund for Small Business and Private Entrepreneurship launches and shapes the process of exportation, with foreign trade companies designed to finalize it.

In the first six months of the current year, the Fund has rendered export-related services to as many as 599 entrepreneurs operating in industries such as construction, agriculture and production of chemicals, textiles and foodstuffs. Besides, the Fund has also provided tourist, transport, marketing and consultancy services.

In the indicated period, 70 entrepreneurs have been given the practical and consultancy support in studying foreign markets and searching overseas partners; 217 entrepreneurs have received the legal and consultancy backing in their efforts to take part in various foreign exhibitions and international tenders, to obtain international certificates and permits, and to undergo the customs registration procedure; 299 commodity producers have been assisted in drawing up exports contracts and getting them registered with banks; 13 small businesses and entrepreneurs have been helped to receive insurance policies for export contracts.

We’re pleased to establish the fact that for now, small enterprises account for more than 50 per cent of the Republic’s GDP. As a consequence, the middle class is growing at a stable pace, with start-up entrepreneurs forming an ever expanding stratum of society. Developing in a sound competitive environment and strongly backed by the state, indigenous entrepreneurship represents a fruitful soil on which to cultivate a highly competitive innovative economy.

(Source: “Business partner.uz” newspaper)

14th international competition of Italian opera

Uzbekistan’s Barno Ismatullayeva Comes out Winner of Competizione dell’Opera

The jury for the 14th Competizione dell’Opera, an international competition of Italian opera, awarded the grand prix to Uzbekistan’s Barno Ismatullayeva, a soloist with the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater.

The young opera singer is a winner of Nihol National Award and has triumphed in several international competitions. Presently, she is pursuing a master’s degree at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan.

Pavel Petrov of Belarus scooped the second place, and Russia’s Mariya Bayankina and Uzbekistan’s Jabrail Idrisov came out third-placed.

The 14th edition of the international opera competition culminated with a rousing gala concert at ‘Uzbekistan’ Palace of International Forums, an architectural gem in the heart of Tashkent. The winners of the festival, soloists of the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater and the invited singers performed with the Youth Symphonic Orchestra of Uzbekistan in what was an unforgettable operatic event that immersed the Uzbek audience into the art of Italian opera.

Competizione dell’Opera is one of the world’s biggest singing competitions, where performers demonstrate their skills in singing Italian opera. For many opera singers, this competition is an excellent opportunity to start a music career and strut their operatic stuff on stages across the world.

Prior to the Tashkent event, performers had gone through selection rounds in Europe, Asia and America, with around 60 top performers below the age 30 (as per competition rules) having been selected to participate in the Tashkent competition. Uzbekistan was represented by 32 talented musicians. The jury for the competition was made up of foremost culture and art professionals and singing voice specialists from fifteen countries.

The international participants taught master classes at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, the State Institute of Culture and Arts as well as Uspensky and Gliere music schools in Tashkent.

“Competizione dell’Opera in Tashkent featured a mind-boggling number of talented performers, which made the selection of winners an arduous task,” says Robert Gilder (the United Kingdom), a member of the jury. “In Tashkent, we have discovered new talents, and I think these singers are certain to secure terrific accomplishments and scale the heights of opera in the future.”

“During my stay in Tashkent I had a chance to become familiar with how students are taught at the Conservatory and I was impressed by the professionalism the teachers demonstrated. That means that a lot is being done at the Conservatory, and in Uzbekistan as a whole, to develop operatic singing,” said Italy’s Maurizio Champi, a member of the jury, composer, conductor, Director of International Bellini Opera Festival and a professor at Santa Cecilia Conservatory. “At this point the Embassy of Italy in Uzbekistan is considering launching a project that will see opera performers from the two countries exchange experience.”

“This is the first time that the high-profile opera competition has been held in Central Asia,” said Hans-Joachim Frey, the chairman of the jury and the Artistic Director of Competizione dell’Opera. “The skills demonstrated by the competitors in Tashkent were so commendable that we decided to introduce an additional prize in addition to the three primary awards. Two of the four winners are from Uzbekistan, which shows how skilled young Uzbek musicians are. We are impressed by the way the competition was organized. We are also struck by the hospitality lavished on the jury members. I think that each of the members will be telling people in their respective countries about how developed opera art in Uzbekistan is as well as about the attention it receives from the government. I’m convinced that our fruitful cooperation with Uzbek colleagues will continue.”

The competition in Tashkent was organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports Affairs of Uzbekistan, the Austria-based association of Competizione dell’Opera, the Uzbekteatr Creative and Production Association, and the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater.

(Source: “Uzbekistan Today” newspaper)

 

Reference to the source is a must in reproducing materials