Как передает корреспондент РИА "Новсти", благодаря льготному кредиту японского фонда внешнеэкономического сотрудничества, в размере 6,102 млрд йен /около 5 млн долларов/, бывшее ташкентское депо по ремонту вагонов модернизировано в завод по ремонту пассажирских вагонов. Проектная мощность нового завода позволит осуществлять капитальный ремонт 450-ти вагонов в год.

В государственной акционерной кампании "Железные дороги Узбекистана" РИА "Новости" сообщили, что в республике более 1 тыс 100 вагонов, а отремонтированные вагоны нуждаются в повторном ремонте только через пять лет.

В нынешнем году предприятие отремонтирует 200 вагонов. Прежде узбекские железнодорожники восстанавливали вагоны в России. На новом предприятие планируется также собирать трамваи и троллейбусы.

Возвращать кредит, предоставленный Японией, Узбекистан будет в течение 20 лет, начиная с 2006 года.

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По его словам, в республике делается все необходимое по предупреждению и распространению ящура. В частности, в аэропортах, на железнодорожных вокзалах, на автомобильных магистралях и пунктах пересечения государственной границы созданы 66 санитарно-карантинных пунктов.

На контрольных пунктах, расположенных при въездах в республику, организованы дезинфекционные барьеры для скота и автомашин с осмотром перевозимых вещей, кормов, продуктов животного происхождения.

Все медицинские работники страны прошли подготовку по 35-часовой программе по профилактике, диагностике и лечению ящура.

По словам министра, в настоящее время ящур зарегистрирован в соседнем Кыргызстане. По данным департамента Госсанэпиднадзора республики Кыргызстан, на 9 марта текущего года в Нарынской области зарегистрировано свыше 100 случаев заражения ящуром животных.

В этой связи всем центрам Госсанэпиднадзора Узбекистана, граничащим с Кыргызстаном, даны указания об усилении контроля за торговлей мясо-молочными продуктами. Широко проводится разъяснительная работа среди населения по профилактике ящура.

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Как сообщил сегодня РИА "Новости" министр по чрезвычайным ситуациям Узбекистана генерал-майор Баходыр Касымов, самолет приземлится во Львове, откуда груз будет доставлен в Закарпатье уже другим транспортом.

По словам министра, гуманитарная помощь состоит из самого необходимого для людей, оставшихся без крова: строительных материалов, медикаментов, дезинфицирующих средств, теплой одежды, обуви, шерстяных одеял, постельных принадлежностей, палаток, а также продуктов питания.

Гуманитарный груз составляет около 30 т.

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Как передает корреспондент РИА "Новости", в ходе сегодняшнего телефонного разговора лидеры обоих государств обсудили актуальные задачи активизации двустороннего партнерства. В беседе подчеркивалось, что у Узбекистана и Туркменистана сохраняется единство взглядов на многие региональные и международные проблемы, что обеспечивает взаимодополняемость и согласованность действий правительств двух стран.

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Nazarbayev and Karimov gave their foreign ministries relevant instructions to speed up negotiations on the above issue, the press service noted.

The heads of states, the press service says, also agreed to meet in May this year to discuss the issues of further extending political and economic links on the basis of the bilateral agreement on eternal friendship.

In the course of the conversation, the presidents discussed a wide range of questions of Kazakh-Uzbek relations and exchanged views on the problems of security in the Central Asian region, the press release said.

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But some analysts suspect that Turkey's change of heart has been prompted by shrewd economic calculations and "imperialistic ambitions" rather than a spontaneous outburst of good will. Turkey was the first state to recognise Uzbekistan's independence in 1991 and was the first port of call for Islam Karimov after his presidential election victory.

During his official visit to Ankara, Karimov announced that he would be basing forthcoming reforms in Uzbekistan on the Turkish economic model. However, in this endeavour, the Uzbek president encountered severe opposition from nationalist groups who were concerned that Turkey would simply replace Russia as Uzbekistan's "big brother".

But nevertheless economic relations flourished between the two countries and, during the ambitious development programme of the early 1990s, all the most lucrative construction contracts were given to Turkish companies. Education also became an area of close collaboration. Between 1992 and 1993, six state-run Turkish lycees were opened in Uzbekistan, followed by 22 private schools. At the same time, more than 2,000 Uzbek students went to study in Turkey. All this changed in February 1999 when five explosions rocked the Uzbek capital, claiming 16 lives. Police investigators claimed that the terrorists had planned the bombings from a secret base in Turkey where they had subsequently taken refuge.

Turkish police later arrested two men, Zainutdin Askarov and Rustam Mamatkulov, who were both on the Uzbek government's wanted list. But the authorities in Ankara dragged their feet over extraditing the suspects, claiming their hands were tied by international agreements. The men were not handed over to the Uzbeks until May that year when they became the first of 22 suspects to stand trial in Tashkent in connection with the attacks.

Uzbekistan was swift to retaliate. A number of Turkish businesses were shut down and subjected to rigorous tax inspections. A Turkish supermarket in Tashkent's Mir shopping centre remained closed for two months. Then the authorities turned their attention to the Turkish lycees. All six state institutions were closed by the education ministry in June 1999 and, by 2000, there were no Turkish schools left in Uzbekistan.

Officially, the Uzbek government said the lycees failed to meet national education standards but privately ministers suspected the schools of spreading extremist religious teachings. Meanwhile, there was a sharp fall in trade between Turkey and Uzbekistan. According to the Turkish embassy in Tashkent, the overall volume of trade plummeted from $300 million in 1997 to $100 million in 2000.

At the end of last year, however, Turkey began to make conciliatory gestures. The government in Ankara announced plans to support Tashkent's ongoing struggle against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan by donating military and technical supplies. The first consignment - consisting mainly of uniforms and flak jackets - was delivered last autumn. Furthermore, the Turkish authorities have pledged that anyone who poses a threat to the security of the Uzbek state will be refused entry into the country. And they have emphatically denied claims that Muhammad Salikh, leader of the Erk party and an opposition figurehead, is currently residing in Turkey. The Turks seem confident that relations are on the mend. Their ambassador to Tashkent, Resit Uman, commented, "There are currently no political problems between Uzbekistan and Turkey." He went on to say that trade was showing signs of picking up and, in the first two months of this year, Turkish companies had invested $120 million in the Uzbek economy.

In addition, plans were afoot to build a $30-million electronics factory in Angren, 100km from Tashkent, as well as a chain of hotels in Samarkand and Bukhara. In April, Uzbek and Turkish government commissions will attend a landmark congress to examine ways of boosting trade between the two countries.

And later in the month, President Karimov will take part in a summit bringing together leaders from across the Turkic-speaking world. However, some Uzbek analysts view the thaw in Uzbek-Turkish relations with caution. They say that, as the most developed of the Turkic-speaking countries, Turkey still harbours "imperialistic ambitions" and is eager to increase its influence over Central Asian politics.

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Participants in exchanges range from high school students to post-graduate professionals. Perhaps the most prominent government-funded exchange is the Department of State Fulbright Program. But other, less publicized initiatives, such as the Future Leaders Exchange (or FLEX) and Community Connections Programs, are also flourishing. FLEX, which was established in 1993 under the Freedom Support Act, focuses on bringing high-school-age students to the United States and having them spend an academic year with a host family. Meanwhile, the Community Connections Program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs offers three- to five-week professional internships for citizens of the former Soviet Union. Participants are placed with a wide variety of companies, ranging from family-run business to multinational corporations.

During the 2000 fiscal year, over 1,000 high school students and 1,500 professionals from the former Soviet Union are studying in the United States on the FLEX and Community Connection programs respectively. The number of FLEX participants from each Central Asian state varies. For example, this academic year 40 students are from Uzbekistan, while 45 come from Kazakhstan. A healthy majority of exchange program participants are female, coming from a broad spectrum of social and ethnic backgrounds. In all, about 5,500 citizens of the former Soviet Union are studying in the United States on government-funded exchanges during the current fiscal year. The path also goes in the other direction, but to a lesser extent: about 800 US students during the current fiscal year are spending time in former Soviet states conducting research. In addition, there are about 2,000 Peace Corps volunteers working in the FSU.

Over time, these exchanges have strengthened the social capital of former Soviet states. In the case of Central Asia, hundreds of exchange program alumni have returned home and established strong new social networks. There are now over 8,000 young people in the FLEX alumni association. Since 1998, the United States has launched a variety of initiatives to strengthen and expand alumni networks. The administrating organizations and local US embassies have established alumni coordinators in the Central Asian nations to help track of exchange participants and keep them connected. These range from specifically FLEX coordinators, Internet Access and Training Program and US Embassy alumni coordinators. Their jobs overlap but all coordinators work together to sponsor events that are designed to foster an ongoing interest in American culture and activate the alumni in their community. They also encourage all alumni to become involved in the non-governmental sector, and engage in local community service. In addition, these coordinators provide assistance designed to foster entrepreneurial activity.

Recent examples of alumni follow-up in Central Asia include:

Several alumni in Kazakhstan participated in a career planning workshop, sharing their own experiences on such topics as job-search skills and interviewing techniques.

Alumni in Kyrgyzstan mounted a high-profile local monitoring effort during last year’s parliamentary elections. Another alumni group spearheaded an effort to get authorities in Bishkek to provide public waste baskets on city streets.

Eleven alumni in Turkmenistan organized a program to teach English to blind children in an orphanage.

A group of Tajik alumni are in the process of forming an NGO called Youth For Democratic Development.

Evidence of the success of the US government exchanges comes in the form of imitation. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan have all started their own exchange programs modeled on those created by the US government. In Uzbekistan, for instance, several hundred students per year participate in such educational exchanges.

Historically, US-funded exchange programs have played an important role in the development of political elites in formerly communist states. For example, in the years immediately following the fall of the Berlin Wall, it turned out that many of the top policy makers of Central European nations had spent time in the United States on educational exchanges. Over the coming decades, US exchanges could end up similarly influencing future generations of Central Asia’s political elite.

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The Kyrgyz government press service said that the Kyrgyzenergo joint-stock company would draw up the programme in collaboration with the Kyrgyz Naryngidroenergostroy [Naryn hydro energy building] joint-stock company and the Uzbek Tashgidroproyekt [Tashkent hydro project] Institute.

The State Power Engineering Agency under the Kyrgyz government and the Kyrgyzenergo joint-stock company have been jointly instructed to look into the possibility of proceeds from Kyrgyzenergo's export operations being used to fund the construction of the Kambar-Ata-2 power station and the power lines that will carry electricity from the power station.

The organizations that are building the Tash-Kumyr and the Shamaldy Say hydroelectric power stations [in the southern Dzhalal-Abad Region] and which are beginning the construction of the Kambar-Ata-2 hydroelectric power station will receive a one-year deferment of their social security and insurance arrears.

The Kyrgyz Finance Ministry is to earmark resources in the 2002 draft state budget amounting to some 50m soms [over 10m dollars] for the building of the Kambar-Ata-2 hydroelectric power station.

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It took several years to build the plant with foreign capital. An agreement was signed in 1996 between the Uzbek government and the Japanese fund for foreign economic activity, audit and credit on the modernization of passenger trains. Equipment was brought in from nine foreign countries. In other words, the plant is a modern and effective production facility. The plant's rated capacity is 450 passenger carriages a year. About 250 carriages will be repaired this year. The president was interested in the plant's long-term programme and in what the plant would repair when the entire [locomotive and carriage] fleet is repaired. There is also a need to repair underground carriages, trams and trolley-buses and a need to sign contracts with neighbouring countries. Such plans exist already.

The new plant is of economic benefit to the railways. Repairs to passenger carriages are much cheaper than abroad. Carriages used to be repaired abroad. This means than foreign currency can really be saved. The Uzbek-made components which are used in the repair process account for 32 per cent. According to forecasts, the use of locally-made components will reach 50 per cent by the end of this year. The plant will also earn additional revenues by producing 20 types of consumer goods and by providing services for the population.

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A new project carried out by Uzbekistan's specialists enables inaccessible and remote rural areas of Uzbekistan to be fully supplied with electricity. Its official name is "Organization of the manufacturing of amorphous silicon solar modules with a capacity of 200 kW". Put more simply, it provides for creating conditions in the republic for the industrial production of batteries that convert solar energy. The project has been carried out by a group of specialists and researchers under the auspices of the technology transfer agency of the State Committee on Science and Technology.

Uzbekistan has sufficient energy resources to meet its internal needs today. However, the traditional sources of energy are not infinite. Every year, the world consumes as much oil as is produced in natural conditions in 2m years. The environmental protection aspect is no less important. For example, the emissions of harmful substances from heat and power generating facilities in Uzbekistan alone exceed 300,000 tonnes every year.

The country's specialists started work in this field in 1996. They set themselves the task of attracting into the country high technology that will make it possible to set up the manufacturing of Uzbek-made batteries that use solar energy. The specialists estimate that using them in Uzbekistan's climatic conditions will bring great economic benefits.

With support from the US Civilian Research and Development Foundation [CRDF], contacts were established with the US company Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., a leader in thin-film technology. As part of an experiment, its subsidiary in Russia provided us with a consignment of photovoltaic conversion devices. Assembling and sealing solar cell panels also involves high technology. The specialists' aim was to prove that Uzbekistan has sufficient scientific and manufacturing potential to master it. The project received a grant from Ukraine's international scientific and technological centre, an organization promoting the implementation of conversion programmes in the CIS countries.

The technology for assembling panels was assimilated at the Composite plant in Chirchik in Tashkent Region, which previously manufactured solar panels for space-based stations. It is estimated that the plant's equipment can annually produce enough "ground-based" solar panels to meet the needs of all areas in the republic that suffer from a lack of electricity.

It has emerged from an independent examination that the quality of Kompozit's solar cells is no any worse than that of US-made ones. The next stage was to create a real system rather than samples for display.

A solar energy conversion device does not just consist of special solar panels. It also incorporates an accumulator and electronics. The apparatus is extremely expensive and is only manufactured abroad at the moment. It has emerged that Uzbekistan's industrial capacity enables it to be manufactured in our republic too. The Semurg radioelectronic appliance plant in Tashkent has undertaken to produce the electronics for the system, designed by specialists from the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Physics in Tashkent. And the technology of the US-Uzbek joint venture UzExide which produces car batteries in Dzhizak could be adapted to produce the necessary accumulators.

In the specialists' opinion, it is the republic's cattle farmers who need the photovoltaic stations most of all. They usually live a long way from the benefits of civilization. The first such autonomous system, with a 100kW capacity, has been installed in Damin Nazarov's sheep farm, located in Samarkand Region's Nurabad District in central Uzbekistan. The lamps, TV and radio in his house now run on solar power.

However, shepherds need supplies of electricity not only for their homes, but for their work as well, since the animals need to be watered every day and there are at least 500 sheep in each herd.

The work of the specialists and researchers was endorsed last October at the session of the republican commission for implementing the state programme to supply drinking water and natural gas to the rural population. Approval has been given to the conducting of experiments to provide electricity and water to inaccessible and remote villages, using the Uzbek-made photovoltaic devices in Karakalpakstan and five Regions in 2001. It has been envisaged that special funds will be allocated from the budgets of the Regions and a number of ministries to manufacture and assemble them.

The results of the Uzbek specialists' work have stimulated interest abroad. The matter was considered at an Uzbek-Austrian seminar held in Tashkent at the suggestion of Austria's Bureau for International Research and Technology Cooperation [BIT]. The subject was taken further. An international consortium has been set up to cooperate with Uzbekistan in the field of renewable energy sources.

The Million Solar Roofs Initiative has been adopted and is being implemented in the USA. There is every possibility for carrying out a similar programme in Uzbekistan, since there is good reason for calling the countrya land of sunshine.

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he first national Internet festival, called "Internet.uz" and devoted to the results of a previously announced contest for the best web sites in Uzbekistan in 16 categories, was held in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on 15 March. The during the contest, which judged 213 web sites created by 164 people - both skilled professionals and young amateurs - the number of sites in Uzbekistan grew by 20 per cent.

Some of the winners were the UzA national state agency's web site as the best news and analytical web site in Uzbekistan, Lexgroup - as the best e-commerce site, with the best patriotic site category won by a Samarkand-based company, and Fergana.ru (Moscow) being named the best foreign site about Uzbekistan.

UzLand.Uz has a forum and voting on the work of the festivbal. If you have comments on the festival or would like to vote on the objectivity of the festival, go to http://uzland.narod.ru/vote.htm and http://narod.yandex.ru/userforum/?owner=uzland

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n Friday, March 16, U.S. Boeing Corporation signed an agreement with Uzbekistan Airways on the purchase of two Boeing-767 aircraft valued at 246 million U.S. dollars. 85% of the agreement is insured by the U.S. Export-Import Bank with the remaining 15% being financed by a number of international banks.

In February Uzbekistan Airways signed a grant agreement with the United States Trade and Development Agency (TDA) to fund a feasibility study for the purchase of these aircraft.

The signing ceremony took place at Uzbekistan Airways' headquarters in Tashkent. U.S. Ambassadsor to Uzbekistan John Herbst, representatives from the Boeing Corporation and Uzbek government officials were present at this event.

Boeing-767-300ER offer two-class seating for 269 passengers.

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