he German Siemens AG has started the implementation of a project to reconstruct two turbine-driven units at the Syrdarya Regional hydro-electric power plant, the largest thermal power plant in Uzbekistan.

In November 1998 the German company won a tender which the Power and Electrification Ministry had announced as part of a 27.8m-dollar loan agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the reconstruction of the Syrdarya power plant.

The total cost of the project is 45.44m dollars. The German company will use the EBRD loan to purchase, deliver and assemble equipment and the Ministry will fund the preparatory and construction work. The ministry told the paper that Siemens was beginning to manufacture equipment which it will deliver by the end of the year.

The project will take 720 days to implement and is to be completed in early 2002. The Syrdarya Regional hydro-electric power plant is currently operating its ten turbine units at the set capacity of 3,000 milliwatt. On the completion of the reconstruction work in 2001, the plant is expected to increase its capacity by about 600 milliwatt and also plans to achieve a reduction in fuel consumption, prolong the service life of equipment and soften the harmful impact of the Syrdarya plant on the environment.

The ministry's experts have drawn up a blueprint for the country's electric and thermal power until 2010, which provides for the reconstruction of major power plants by injecting foreign capital of roughly 1 bln. dollars into it. This programme envisages the reconstruction of three more Regional hydro-electric power stations, apart from the Syrdarya plant, two heat and electric power plants; building a new hydro power station and the reconstruction of cable grids in Tashkent.

he ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Greece to the Republic of Uzbekistan, Dimitrios Kypreos, paid a courtesy visit to the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Uzbekistan on 2nd March. The guest met the minister of defence of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Gen-Lt Yuriy Agzamov, and they exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.

resident Islam Karimov met with Italian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Iolanda Brunetti Goetz on March 4, whom the president handed the Order of Dustlik for her contribution to the strengthening of Uzbek-Italian relations. On the same day President Karimov received credentials from ambassadors-designate of Ukraine Anatoliy Kasyanenko, of Pakistan Fazal Gafur, of Canada Irwin Rodney and of Mexico Enrike Bui Flores.

he CIS Council of Defense Ministers will hold a regular meeting in Moscow on March 16 over prospects of military cooperation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. A spokesman for the CIS military cooperation coordination staff told Itar-Tass on Saturday that the meeting has on its agenda a large-scale military exercise, Shield '2000, scheduled to be held by Russia, Kazakhatan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikisyan and Uzbekistan in late March.

The CIS Council of Defense Ministers was set up in 1992 for coordination of military cooperation, It meets three-four times a year. The latest meeting was held in Moscow in December. CIS defense ministers then discussed improvement of the CIS collective air defense system, work of the Council's bodies and a plan of action for 2000. Special attention was given to the collective fight of terrorism in the post-Soviet territory.

n March 4 Russian acting President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. They discussed bilateral cooperation and coordination on regional affairs, Putin's press service told RIA-Novosti. Putin also had a telephone conversation with Uzbek President Islam Karimov and discussed concrete measures to step up bilateral cooperation, as well as Russian-Uzbek interaction to strengthen peace and security in Central Asia, the press service said.

zbekistan is curbing attempts to sell large amounts of forged US dollars of Chechen origin. Every day, several attempts to sell counterfeit currency are being curbed in different parts of the country, a source at the Uzbek Ministry of Internal Affairs told Interfax on Friday [3rd March]. In 2000, Uzbekistan recorded 119 cases of forged US dollars and securities, the source said. In connection with this crime, criminal cases against 98 people have been initiated, and 66 among them have been arrested.

The largest amount of forged dollars, 400,000 dollars, was seized in January from a Tashkent resident. The money, transported to Tashkent from Kazakhstan, had been purchased from a Chechen living there, the source said.

The examination of the material related to these cases reveals a "Chechen origin" of the counterfeit dollars, the source insists. The detained people, collected documents and material evidence show that the forged money was transported both by Chechnya residents themselves and persons hired by them.

he unofficial rate of the dollar plummeted from 850-830 soms to 500-550 soms against the dollar at markets in Tashkent on March 2 (official rate is 144.19 soms to the dollar). Tradespeople offer this rate when they buy the dollar, however there is no information at what rate they sell it, as far as it is simply not sold. Many people interpret the sharp fall of the exchange rate by a possible introduction of the convertability of the som, about which there has been contradictory talk for a long time. Another possible reason is the holiday effect: in order to buy gifts people need money which they can receive by selling some of their cash currency. One more possible reason is currency machinations in the shadow economy. And finally it is the government's offer to exchange soums into dollars on an official rate for under four thousand pilgrims from Uzbekistan.