Uzbek newspaper 'Novosti Nedeli'
October 26
he vice president of the World Bank, Johannes Linn, has paid a brief
visit to Uzbekistan. He was accompanied by the new director of the World Bank
for the Central Asian countries, Dennis de Tray, and the executive
director, Matthias Meyer.
The high-ranking delegation visited the country's Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Macroeconomics and Statistics, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. The possible impact of the latest world events on the global economy, as well as the economy of Uzbekistan, was discussed with the heads of these ministries and the bank. The sides continued their constructive dialogue on the country's development strategy, which was drawn up by the World Bank jointly with the Uzbek government, in which credit allocation plans for the financial years 2002-2004 and other routine cooperation matters were outlined.
During his visit, the new director of the World Bank for the Central Asian countries, Dennis de Tray, visited the Karshi series of pumping stations, for which the World Bank has been drawing up a project. A 114m-dollar loan, which is being allocated, is aimed at rehabilitating the automatic watering systems of the Karshi series irrigation structures.
This is the first stage of a long-term programme for improving the operation and technical maintenance of water resource sites, which is to be implemented within 3-4 years jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources. Then the World Bank envoy visited Samarkand, where he and the heads of the Regional administration discussed another project - improvement of the water supply and hygiene in Samarkand and Bukhara. A total of 33.8m dollars should make a significant contribution towards preserving the cultural heritage of these ancient cities in Uzbekistan.