amarkand Region has made a number of achievements in free-market economy conditions. But there are also shortcomings. A meeting devoted to the results of the Region's socioeconomic development in the first nine months of the year discussed the matter in detail. First. Industrial enterprises are not operating smoothly in the Region. Joint-ventures are remaining idle because of a shortage of raw materials. Why were they set up if a such a problem existed? Who will be brought to book because 43 enterprises are operating at loss? Declaring them bankrupt and liquidating them is easy to do. But who will assess the work of managers who failed to use opportunities that were going begging? These kinds of questions were asked at the meeting.

No one is satisfied with the situation in the construction sector. Managers in that field are only busying themselves with using the budget funds. None of them are seeking new orders and clients.

The [public's] debts to the municipal economy are increasing all the more because of the irresponsibility of officials in the sector. The debts have now edged over 1bn soms. Instead of seeking new ways of collecting money from the public, the sector's officials are merely complaining about the debts. They could at least apply the justice department's proposal for recovering debts from people's monthly wages.

The work of joint-stock companies was also sharply criticized at the meeting. Shares in enterprises are somehow being sold. But shareholders are not receiving any dividends.

It looks as though banks in Samarkand do not have a full grasp of banking policy. Otherwise they would be more concerned about what happens to the funds they have allocated to developing an enterprise.

How is one to assess the fact that such Districts as Guzalkent, Koshrabat and Nurabad have not yet organized joint ventures in their areas? There are also many problems in the Region which are hindering the agricultural reforms. The biggest shortcoming is that the most important points of the reforms are not explained to farmers in any depth. New forms of ownership only exist on paper. Certain officials do not even grasp the process themselves.

The failure to grasp the essence of reform has led to a situation in which some land reserved for cotton has been sown to vegetables during this drought year in such Districts as Payaryk, Chelek and Ishtykhan.

The Region failed to meet the grain target because of delayed and poorly organized land-management measures and casual seed-selection work. In short, the reason for the Region's present dire cotton and grain situation could be explained by the factors outlined above. (Uzbek radio, November 1)

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he Uzbek Supreme Court continued its hearing of the case of 12 alleged Islamic extremists, nine of whom are being tried in absentia, accused of carrying out "terrorist" acts and other crimes, Uzbek TV reported on 2nd November.

The TV report said that the parents of those who were killed during combat operations against militant incursions into southern Surkhandarya Region's Uzun and Saryassiya Districts in July and August this year gave evidence.

Nortoji Salimova, captioned as the mother of Senior Lt Alisher Salimov, who was killed in Surkhandarya Region, said: "These dregs could not have killed anyone in an open fight. All those who were killed there were killed by sniper bullets. These jackals even mocked the dead bodies. Moreover, my son was wounded in the head, his throat was cut, and then he was shot in the heart. They mocked his body. It was horrible to look at other bodies. They cut off everything possible. Are they human beings at all? If I had the opportunity, I would tear them to pieces myself."

In all, 15 young people were killed during the armed clashes in Surkhandarya Region, the report said.

"Since the start of the hearings, about 50 victims have given evidence. The number of victims invited to the trial is 200," the report added.

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he Uzbek Football Federation has sacked the national coach and the federation secretary following Uzbekistan's poor showing in the 12th Asian Cup.

Uzbekistan came bottom in Group C in the cup, losing 8-1 to Japan, the team that later went on to clinch the cup in the final on 29th October.

The Uzbek coach, Yuriy Sarkisyan, was reported as telling a meeting of the federation:"I'm not a magician... I mean, in just two and a half months not even the most experienced coach in the world could train a team able to compete with the national teams of Japan and Saudi Arabia, because Japanese football has entered the 23rd century right now. Whereas Uzbekistan..."

Sarkisyan was picked up on this at the meeting by the federation's chairman, Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov: "You leave Uzbekistan alone... I thought you were going to apologize before our people for not coming up to their expectations."

The coach of Nasaf football team in the southern Uzbek Region of Kashkadarya, Bahrom Hakimov, was appointed national coach; the deputy president of Dostlik football club, in Dzhizak Region, southwest of the capital, Bakhtiyor Rahimov, was appointed chief secretary of the national team, replacing Zokir Qurbonov.

"In a word, the younger generation has been given a chance to show what they can do."

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he Uzbek oil and gas holding Uzbekneftegaz in the first nine months of the year extracted 3,186,000 tonnes of oil, 402,000 tonnes less than during the same period last year, the Uzbek Macroeconomics and Statistics Ministry has told Interfax.

At the same time, the extraction of gas condensate grew 0.2 per cent to 2,488,000 tonnes.

Uzbekneftegaz divisions produced 41,493m cubic metres of natural gas or 398.8m more than in January-September 1999.

Its oil refineries refined 5,191,000 tones of crude oil and gas condensate or 14,200 tonnes more than during the same period last year (100.3 per cent to last year), producing 1,355,000 tonnes of gasoline (105.7 per cent), including 1,346,000 tonnes of motor gasoline (105.9 per cent). The production of kerosene amounted to 328,800 tonnes (117.2 per cent); diesel fuel, 1,546,400 tonnes (88.3 per cent); furnace oil, 34,800 tonnes (156.8 per cent); heating oil, 1,331,000 tonnes (98.8 per cent); bitumen, 232,300 tonnes (107.2 per cent); lubricants, 129,300 tonnes (106.1 per cent); and diesel oil, 53,800 tonnes (96.6 per cent).

The production of liquefied gas amounted to 59,300 tonnes (128.9 per cent), and condensed gas, to 42,203,000 cubic metres, which is 32.7m more than during the same period of last year (445.2 per cent).

Gas processing plants processed 28.15bn cubic metres of natural gas (101.4 per cent).

The holding was set up in 1998 and unites eight companies controlling the entire oil and gas sector in Uzbekistan. The holding has a charger capital of 1.56bn dollars.

Last year its companies produced 55.6bn cubic metres of natural gas and about 8m tonnes of oil and gas condensate.

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he Directorate of Internal Affairs of Khorezm Region has started to use aircraft in order to increase the mobility of its rapid-reaction group. The group's numbers have been boosted mainly by personnel who have seen military service as army paratroopers.

The Northern Military District has been helping the police to equip the group and train its personnel. It has allocated the necessary quantity of parachutes, and its experts have trained the police staff.

The policemen from Khorezm have recently undergone parachute training at a test ground belonging to the Vatanparvar [auxiliary defence support] society in Tashkent Region, and acquired the necessary skills. They also received suitable psychological training, which is quite important too.

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n the age of globalization, the process of intense social differentiation taking place in the CIS countries, and in Uzbekistan in particular, goes along with intensive informational differentiation. The latter, against sociologists' opinions, is not directly connected with the financial situation of this or that social group. The mechanism of informational differentiation is a more subtle issue than one can suggest (but it is a different topic).Today, Uzbekistan is experiencing an opposite trend - informational differentiation becoming a cause of social differentiation.

Today Uzbekistan's society has divided into those having computer skills (at a consumer level) and those who have not even seen a computer. The latter group includes the overwhelming majority of Uzbek citizens. According to a foreign computer company, Uzbekistan now has 100,000-150,000 computers of various generations, mostly in offices of public and private companies. Most of them - about 65 percent - are outdated computers of 286-386 series or even older. Nearly 25 percent are 486 computers, and only 10 percent are Pentium computers.

Already Uzbek society faces difficuilties directly related to the computerization and informatization of society.All classifieds in Uzbek newspapers offering job positions demand that potential employees (unqualified labor excepted) in both state-owned and private companies and organizations have computer and office equipment skills.

Two important spheres in computer technology are information systems (databases) and communication (the Internet).Despite the Uzbek Government's efforts to equip most newly opened schools and universities with computers, most Uzbek young people are beyond the "information boom." The reasons are the poor instruction of computer science at schools and the absence of computers and textbooks. Textbooks imported from Russia cannot be used because of their language (since Russian has become a foreign language to many Uzbeks) and their high price (several months' wages).So most graduates of Uzbek schools encounter problems in using computer equipment. Tashkent and provincial centers have many computer courses, but their prices are too high for most citizens.

As for the Internet, it is in the sphere of solely non-governmental organizations. The state, authoritarian by its character, is preventing rather than encouraging Internet development in Uzbekistan. In 1998 the Government connected all Internet providers in Uzbekistan with the only state-owned providing company, Uzpak, in order to control who gets what information from the worldwide web, and for what purpose.

Seventy-one percent of Tashkent business people and heads of private companies have said they get economic information (stock exchange quotations, market prices, forex situation) from the Internet, 12 percent from the press, 10 percent from their business partners and colleagues, and the remaining from television and radio. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said this information helps them rapidly respond to the changing market situation and better conduct financial operations and marketing studies.

Making the Internet more accessible in Uzbekistan has been largely encouraged by non-governmental, non-commercial organizations created mostly with the participation of the United States, such as the Project for Economic Reforms and Development in Central Asia (PERDCA).Today PERDCA has established electronic mail centers in Tashkent and five other Uzbek cities, providing free services to university students and teachers.

Access to information is considered one of the basic human development indicators in the world. In 1998 developed countries had 34.5 Internet outlets per every 1,000 people, average-level countries - 0.24, developing countries - 0, and Uzbekistan - 0.01.The 2000 statistics will probably report a progress in Uzbekistan thanks to a UNDP project that has been started here.

This two-year project, called "Creation of the potential for the development of Internet technologies and their spread in Uzbekistan," aims to create an Internet outlets network and provide wide access to it. The project is financed by the UNDP and the Soros Foundation (both granted USD 250,000) and Uzbekistan's Academy of Sciences which has contributed buildings, telephone lines and other facilities worth nearly USD 100,000.The network will provide Internet access to research, educational and non-governmental commercial organizations for minimal tariffs. In addition, the project authors hope that their model will help the Government develop a strategy for spreading Internet access in the nation (instead of preventing it).

Recently an Uzbek newspaper reported that 350 million sums (nearly USD 0.5 million according to the black market exchange rate) have been spent for the restoration of Chokardiza cemetery and construction of a memorial complex of an outstanding theologist, Imam al-Maturidi (died in 944) in Samarkand. This huge amount of money has been invested in the restoration of the distant past. Unfortunately, the press said nothing of how much money has been invested in building the future - such as providing Samarkand schools and universities with computers and other equipment. (Times of Central Asia, November 1)

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