February11, 2015
More than 26 thousand new small businesses were created in 2014. 2
elections OF THE PRESIDENT of the republic of uzbekistan.. 2
Political Parties Submit their Documents for Registration of Candidates. 2
REGIONS: the republic of Karakalpakstan.. 3
Karakalpakstan: Keeping Traditions Alive and Kicking. 3
Д.Хакимов
А.Каипбергенов
О.Алимов
economy
More than 26 thousand new small businesses were created in 2014
In 2014 work on the creation of a favorable business environment and investment climate, improvement of the legal and regulatory framework, the elimination of unnecessary bureaucratic and administrative procedures for doing business was continued.
Pursuant to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated April 7, 2014 “On additional measures for further improvement of the investment climate and business environment in the Republic of Uzbekistan”, regulations were adopted aimed at enhancing the protection of rights and interests of entrepreneurs, limiting the number of audits of their financial and economic activity , providing additional tax preferences, simplifying the implementation mechanisms of foreign economic activity, liberalization of business activities, as well as increasing the transparency of public bodies.
Measures implemented to build the business environment, comprehensive support and further stimulation of the development of small and private businesses contributed to the creation in 2014 of more than 26 thousand new small businesses (excluding farming enterprises), announces the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The greatest number of small businesses was created in industry (24.8% of the total), in trade and catering (29.2%) and in construction (12%).
In order to assist in the organization of small enterprises in 2014 288 state assets to small businesses (including 182 – at zero redemption value with investment obligations) totaling 64.6 billion soums were realized and 26.9 thousand unused state properties were leased (currency rates of CB RU from 11.02.2015 1$= 2448.16 soums).
Over the past year on the development of this sector loans amounting to 9.2 trillion soums were issued by commercial banks with an increase of 1.3 times compared to the year 2013, including microcredits – 1.9 trillion. soums (1.4 times), credit lines of international financial institutions in the amount of 157.8 million dollars (1.2 times) were utilized.
The volume of government purchases from small businesses for 2014 amounted to 467.4 billion soums or 99.3% of total public procurement.
Overall, in 2014, small businesses sold their products through exchanges in excess of 1.6 trillion. soums (increase by 1.8 times), which accounted for 18.6% of the total stock market turnover, small businesses purchased products in the amount of 4.3 trillion. soums (increase by 1.6 times).
As a result of the implementation of measures to support exports of small business and entrepreneurship at the end of 2014, small businesses and private enterprises exported goods worth more than $ 3.6 billion dollars.
In general, the measures taken ensured an increase in the share of small business in GDP – up to 56.1% (55.8% in 2013), in the industry – up to 31.9% (28.1%), investment – up to 34.8% (33.5%) and paid services – 48.5% (46.7%) and employment – up to 77.2% (76.7%).
(Source: UzReport.uz)
elections OF THE PRESIDENT of the republic of uzbekistan
Political Parties Submit their Documents for Registration of Candidates
The Movement of Entrepreneurs and Businessmen of Uzbekistan – the Liberal Democratic Party (UzLiDeP) and the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party of Uzbekistan presented the required package of documents to the Central Election Commission (CEC) for registration of candidates for the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The members of the CEC, representatives of political parties and the media took part in the event.
In accordance with the electoral legislation, the nomination of the candidates for the President of Uzbekistan starts sixty-five days before the election and ends forty-five days before the election. The nomination of candidates for the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan is carried out by the supreme body of the political parties – through the congress or conference.
The documents submitted to the CEC include the written request by the leader of the political party on the registration of the candidate for the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the decision of the supreme body of the political party on nominating the candidate for the President of Uzbekistan, the protocol of the supreme body of the political party nominating the candidate for the President of Uzbekistan, the application of the candidate for the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on consent to be put to the vote, as well as the petitions in support of the nominee.
It should be noted that political parties have completed the collection of voter signatures supporting candidates nominated by them for the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Within seven days, the CEC should examine and give an opinion on the conformity of the submitted documents with the requirements of the electoral legislation.
At present, the working groups at the CEC conduct their activities on verification of the correctness of subscription lists, which included the members of the CEC, representatives of public organizations, specialists of the bodies of Internal Affairs, Justice and other institutions.
(Source: UzA)
REGIONS: the republic of Karakalpakstan
Karakalpakstan: Keeping Traditions Alive and Kicking
Karakalpakstan is filled and imbued with friendliness and tolerance in regard to traditions and customs of the nations inhabiting this hospitable land. At the same time, this region has a unique global mission of a cradle and custodian of model values defining the distinct originality of Karakalpaki people.
During the years of independence, huge attention has been given to setting up conditions enabling to preserve regional traditions and national culture. There’s hardly a chance to estimate the overall volume of investments channeled into the improvement of infrastructure since the projects are financed from different sources. Large-scale activities have been carried out within the national programs on the territory of Karakalpakstan as an administrative unit of Uzbekistan on creating children’s music and art schools, Barkamol Avlod Children’s Art Centers; setting up cultural and entertainment centers is in progress as well as laying new parks of culture and recreation. Numerous sites have been reconstructed and improved under programs for development of tourist infrastructure and implementation of master plans for urban construction and architecture.
Craftsmen and amateur talent performers enjoy governmental support. Projects on the study and preservation of the heritage of the past are being realized within the framework of various grant projects, among them those sponsored by the Committee on Coordination of Science and Technology development. Numerous enterprises have been included into the target lists of the State investment programs.
And the results are there. Twenty years ago many a cultural establishment was accommodated in unadapted premises, while today the majority of them are housed in new specifically designed or reconstructed buildings erected with consideration of their nature of activity and fitted out with the latest equipment. Low-efficient establishment have been shut down replaced by more advanced centers complying with the current tasks and objectives. But most importantly, the ministries and departments – when passing decisions on each project – proceed from the generic interests of local population.
… I can remember my discussion with Kaipbergen Utemuratov, a taxi-driver from Nukus, whom I met several years ago while on a business trip. The talk was about parks of culture and recreation. He said he enjoyed resting with his family in Tashkent because there were so many of them out there and even envisioned a day when similar conditions would be available in his hometown.
I witnessed the creation of new parks and reconstruction of existing ones during my current visit to Karakalpakstan. We also saw how the embankment of the Dostlik (Friendship) canal, flowing through the town, gradually turned into a single cultural zone uniting dozens of various projects. Located right here is also the worldrenowned Igor Savitsky Museum of Art, a treasure trove of avant-garde art and one of the largest collections of Uzbek, Karakalpak and Russian painters’ artworks.
There are more than 90 thousand exhibits in the Museum’s collection, including masterpieces of the local masters of applied art, paintings of the Karakalpak and Uzbek artists of the 1920-1930s and those by twentiethcentury Russian painters. Until quite recently, the priceless treasures of the world civilization kept in the Museum, visited today by foreign tourists, were kept in maladjusted facilities in different parts of the town. The situation changed during the years of independence.
A new exhibition hall – one of the buildings of the planned complex – was commissioned in 2003. The construction of two more and landscaping of adjoining area – with a total cost of more than 44,270 billion soums – is about to be completed soon (currency rates of CB RU from 11.02.2015 1$= 2448.16 soums). This complex erected in compliance with the design of the Tashkent Research Institute of City construction (“UzshaharsozlikLITI”) has turned into one of the most attractive places of Nukus.
But the key thing is content. Marinika Babanazarova, the director of the Museum, says: “Merely 3% of masterpieces are displayed in the exhibition hall built in 2003. We can display yet another 3% upon completion of the second hall’s construction. Equally important and significant is a building located between the exhibition blocks. It is designed to keep our artworks and house restoration studios. I want to particularly underline that the best museum equipment will be installed here, which will enable to reliably preserve the Museum’s collection”.
Life is in full swing in the Museum. A group of the oldest and most experienced specialists are working hard on the compilation of an exposition for the new exhibition hall. I managed to talk to one of them, chief of the restoration department, Alvina Shpade.
“We are living through a complicated creative process: things keep changing and being supplemented regularly,” says Shpade. “The new section of the exposition will be mainly represented by paintings, drawings and sculptures by Uzbek, Karakalpak and Russian artists of different times. Many masters are represented in this collection by dozens of their pictures; we would like to show their creations made in different periods of their lives, hence we have to keep screening their works again and again.”
This year, the Museum plans to conduct several solo exhibitions of modern artists. There is going to be an exhibition devoted to the 80th anniversary of our interlocutor. Alvina Shpade is not only a skilled restorer, who uses the latest technologies and materials, but also a painter. She paints still lifes, landscapes, daily life scenes, costume sketches for films and much more, which we will have an opportunity to tell you more about. Among other works by artists I saw reproductions of ornamental patterns made on the basis of the old unrestorable suzanis (embroideries), clothes and dresses, rugs and carpets. These items are in demand in the Museum’s studios, where new masterpieces of applied art are woven and embroidered according to centuriesold technologies. Several years ago the staff of the Museum implemented an old dream, which the founder of the Museum had failed to realize. The Museum has turned into a center of rehabilitation of Karakalpak people’s traditional technologies of applied art. The studios are busy weaving carpets and embroidering suzanis according to traditional technologies. Working in the studios are the Museum personnel, who spend here most of their time free from performing their major responsibilities.
The staff of the Museum is also getting prepared for other events planned for the current year. An original event in the cultural life of the country – “Night at the Museum” – is timed to coincide with the International Museum Day. It will include meetings with well-known culture professionals of the region and the country. Upcoming celebrations honoring the 100th anniversary of Igor Savitsky in September are expected to be equally engaging and thrilling. The event will be attended by art critics, artists and painters and all those who personally knew the counter of the Museum collection or worked with him.
Right across the Museum complex is the State Theater of Young Audiences. It is still under reconstruction which is planned to be completed by the summer of 2015. I stopped for a minute and thought: “It’s going to be so nice when the canal reconstruction will be completed and boats would float along it from one place to another, people would enjoy strolling along the embankment. Practically all cultural sites of the town are located along the canal, you know”. In the meantime, the construction work is underway on the embankment.
I travelled round to the Berdakh Karakalpak Music Theater. We called in on the way to Berdakh National Museum.
It is the youngest museum in Karakalpakstan opened in 2002, a kind of symbol of continuity of generations. Collected here are the books and belongings, which the great poet of Karakalpak people used. There are expositions telling about a unique cultural heritage and achievement of the Karakalpak people in the field of culture and arts. By the way, the most unique exhibit is a chapan (oriental robe), which the poet used to wear in his time. Karajon-bakhshi Kabulov, the poet’s grandson, handed it over to the Museum as a gift. The other part of exposition is made up of the creative works of the Karakalpak State University students, who continue the nation’s customs and traditions. Still other items on display attracting one’s attention are the embankment reconstruction mock-up options made by the students of the University Architecture and Civil Engineering department.
On the way we dropped in to the Qoraqalpogiston Adabiyoti (Literature of Karakalpakstan) newspaper editorial board and were welcomed by Guliston Annakilicheva, a member of the editorial board, People’s poet, an Honored Worker of Arts of Karakalpakstan, and Senator of the Supreme Assembly of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Incidentally, another collected works ‘Ota Uyim’ (Paternal Home) by Guliston-opa will come off the press these days. It includes socio-political articles, short stories, and poems in which she describes her land and tremendous changes, which have taken place here in recent years. The topic of our short discussion however, was support of young talent.
“The modern youth of Karakalpakstan is on a creative rise,” she underlined. “The newspaper Literature of Karakalpakstan” was established several years ago for rendering support of young talent who endeavor to achieve progress in literature. Along with the works by young poets and prose writers, we also publish translations made by those, who try their potential in this field. Life has it that not all who had taken up the pen in their youth sustain in the literary pursuits, however we feel proud that we managed to start up such a newspaper whose publications help it to gain confidence in their calling.”
And here’s the Berdakh Karakalpak Music Theater. The place is crowded: the troupe of the theatre performs several interlude plays per day devoted to the Year of Attention and Care for the Senior Generation. It’s worthwhile noting that many spectators got their tickets for free or at a discount. The Council of Trade Union Federation, administrations of enterprises and subjects of entrepreneurship helped them to get those tickets.
The logistics of the Theatre has significantly been consolidated. The building had been reconstructed and fitted out with the latest illuminating and audio equipment, which expanded the actors’ creative potential.
This unique Theatre is noted for the broad diversity of the genres of its performances. Opera, ballet, musical comedy and dramas maintain creative good-neighborly relations. Also wide is a thematic diversity of the staged plays. It offers interludes and everyday family life themes for a broad range of spectators, and classical plays – for the true admirers of art.
“For the first time since the first night of the first opera in the Karakalpak language ‘Ajiniyaz’ back in 1987 we staged it again last year, which aroused a broad public response,” says the Theater’s chief producer Berdibay Utebayev. “As a continuation of historical themes we plan to stage a folk epic, ‘Edige’, by Jumaboybakhshi Bazarov in his currently popular interpretation this year.”
Berdibay Utebayev also admitted that the tragedy of the Aral Sea had not been reflected in the stage. This gap is to be filled in by the Theater’s troupe, which will start the production of the play ‘Tankha Kayym’ by Erkin Azam.
I came across my oldtime acquaintance Umirbay Kasymbetov at the Theater. His name never quits the pages of newspapers and TV screens: he won the ‘Etirof 2014’ prize last year for the best theatrical actor. There is no surprise since all the plays and films with his participation are so much admired by the audience. We got acquainted with him two years ago when he headed the Nukus branch of the Uzbek Institute of Culture and Arts. He practically demonstrated then how it was important today to train modern specialists in culture. Thanks to him, a yurt (nomad’s tent) turns into a hotel room or café booth, while traditional embroidery becomes a decorative ornament of a modern dress. Most importantly, such utilization of age-old traditions promotes the preservation of the nation’s culture turned its wealthy property.
This time the talk with Umirbay Kasimbetov turned to the development of Karakalpakstan as a major center of Uzbekistan in the field of theatrical art and cinema. Last year, the largest film studio of the region ‘Karakalpakfilm’ more than once gladdened the viewers with new productions. The film ‘Qorghon’ by Abduvahid Ghaniyev, which I watched at its opening night at the Alisher Navoi Cinema Palace in Tashkent, was best kept in the spectators’ minds. The film tells about modern Karakalpakstan, its people, achievements they gained in culture and art, as well as the fate of the Aral Sea. But generally speaking, the film produced at the order of the ‘Uzbekkino’ National agency is about the vision and aspirations of defenders of the Fatherland, growing tradition of the multination people of Uzbekistan to live in friendship, mutual understanding and tolerance.
From the experience of my previous business trips to Karakalpakstan I knew that the Research Institute of Humanitarian Sciences of the Karakalpak Branch of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan contributes greatly to the preservation and study of the cultural heritage. By the way, the Uzbekistan Today Information Agency shares z joint project with the specialists of this Institute – preparation and publication of an illustrated gift album “Masterpieces of Architectural Epigraphics”. It is an edition devoted to historical monuments of Karakalpakstan. The Institute boasts of many other projects implemented within the framework of the State scientific grants and projects, including those with the involvement of foreign partners.
“Among our latest editions there is the next volume of collected Karakalpak folklore ‘Karakalpak folklory’, which perpetuates the priceless exhibits of the stocks collected by the specialists of the Institute in the course of many years. Also in demand our colorful album ‘Karakalpak Dress’, which narrates in detail about the customs and traditions of the people,” says Makset Karlybayev, director of the Institute. “Historians and archaeologists, who make research into the study of the nation’s unique heritage, contribute greatly into the study of the region’s culture and history. The most resounding discovery was the excavation of an archaeological monument in Beruny District. We have already told the story in the mass media about recently discovered unique wall-paintings with images and script, according to our assumptions, of ancient Khorezmian rulers, the perusal of which would enable to establish with great accuracy who was portrayed in the walls. The work is going on in the restoration studio and there is already something to talk about. But this will be done only after we will have collected more evidence proving the correctness of our conclusions.”
There are six architectural and 18 archaeological monuments located on the territory of the Amu-Darya, Beruny, Muynak, Karauzak, Kungrad and Ellik-Kala Districts taken under the protection of the State. Tremendous activities have been carried out on their improvement and preservation during the years after independence.
There is no doubt that Nukus is the center of cultural life of Karakalpakstan, but one should also keep in mind the rural areas, where we have people sticking to their customs and traditions to greater extent. It would be fair to note that the State allocates much attention to the creation of conditions in an effort to preserve and further enrich this legacy.
Driving past the major settlements time and again, we came across modern mass scale planned buildings – music and art schools, breeding grounds where children get access to the huge creative world to continue customs and traditions. Last year witnessed the completion of the program on consolidation of their logistical support and currently they are provided with all conditions for conducting trainings at respective level. Few can recall now that the school of music and art №3 is one the six, reconstructed among the first within the State program for consolidation of logistical support and further improvement of these establishments’ activities is located here, in Turtkul District of Karakalpakstan.
“Our school was among the first six music and art schools included into the program. We have been working for six years now in the renovated building and newly built on new block. Much has changed since then. Only music was taught previously, today we have art departments too,” says Maksud Tovboyev, director of the music and art school №3. “We train about 100 children to play 17 musical instruments, among them national ones, as well as fine arts, gold embroidery and wood carving departments. Training rooms comply with technical standards; there is a concert hall, studios for the study of various types of creative activities. There are new musical instruments, orchestra sets, modern illumination system and special effects equipment available in all training rooms.”
Barkamol Avlod Children’s Art Centers were set up and are operating successfully in each district and town within a different State program the implementation of which was also completed last year. They play a major role in the continuation of traditions of craftsmanship and needlework, culinary and many other areas. We have also visited a Center for Culture and Recreation in Kegeyli District. It was one of the first to be organized in Karakalpakstan; eighty more are expected to be repaired.
“Our Center was built as a culture center, last year it was repaired and transformed into a Center for culture and recreation that was done in time since its role in the fellow villagers’ cultural and spiritual life keeps gaining momentum. To a certain extent, it serves as an alternative option for a TV set: everything is interesting here – gaining knowledge, singing and dancing. There are five amateur clubs and three amateur art studios with ‘National’ status,” says Amina Sultanniyazova, art director. “Conditions were significantly improved last year – we now have an auditorium, spacious room and even a beauty salon.”
Representatives of artistic groups gradually joined our conversation.
The words of gratitude expressed by Konesbay Saparov, head of ‘Zhilua’ Song and dance ensemble, were warmly supported by head of ‘Jaykhun’ vocal and instrumental ensemble Jenis Jakslykov: “To have their own ensemble for village dwellers, where everybody knows everyone, is a great achievement, they enjoy a live entertainment program, so to speak. Most importantly, our ensembles provide an excellent opportunity to consolidate and hand over our forefathers’ customs and traditions to the following generations. By the way, we perform not only Karakalpak melodies, songs and dances, but also those of other nations living in our region”.
“Our first night performances in the Center for culture and recreation attract full house,” says Holligul Maulenova, head of the local National Drama Theater. “Judging by spectators’ comments, our fellow townsmen like our performances although only I have a theatrical education. The rest of the members are amateurs.”
… This is what the cultural life of Karakalpak people was like, as we saw it: based on the national art, by now marching in step with contemporary life.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
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