| January 9-January 16, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Uzbek copper plant sees 98 output slump with price | (Reuters) |
Uzbekistan's Almalyk Metallurgical Plant,
46.5 percent of which is being tendered for sale to foreign investors, saw copper
production fall sharply last year from 1997, a senior official said late on
Thursday.
"We produced 89,936 tonnes of copper in 1998, but in 1997 we produced
115,696," the plant's general director Vitaly Segedin told reporters.
"The drop happened because of the fall in metal prices on the London exchange
from $2,200 a tonne (in 1997) to $1,400 a tonne," he said, referring to the
London Metals Exchange.
The slump in value also meant that the combine, which is Uzbekistan's sole
copper producer, was unable to invest earnings in upgrading its technology and
equipment.
Segedin said that zinc production from Almalyk was stable at 52,000 tonnes last
year from 53,000 tonnes the previous year.
Total export earnings from base metals fell to $131 million from $160 million in
1997, he added.
Segedin declined to give a forecast of output in 1999, but said that revenues
from base metal exports this year were expected to edge higher to $136 million.
Gold and silver production rose by four and nine percent respectively in 1998
from 1997 levels, Segedin said, without naming exact figures.
Almalyk produced 68.7 tonnes of silver in 1997 and around 13 tonnes of gold.
The sale of a major stake in the plant, located near the capital Tashkent, will be
key to the success of Uzbekistan's new privatisation programme.
The government of the mostly desert Central Asian state aims to raise $478
million from the 46.5 percent share, although analysts in Tashkent have said that
the price is unrealistic given depressed commodity prices.
In a sign that the selloff may be in trouble already, a privatisation official told
Reuters on Friday that the deadline for bids, originally set for January 15, had
been extended by six weeks.
"Because of the need for more detailed study of the Almalyk project by bidders,
and because of the Christmas and New Year holidays, the deadline for
accepting bids in the international tender is being extended to March 1, 1999,"
said Muzafar Magrupov, who is co-ordinating the Almalyk tender.
He added that the results of the tender would also be delayed until June 15 from
May 1.
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Chiefs of Security Councils of Cst signatories to meet
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The Secretaries of the Security Councils
of the countries which are parties to the Collective Security Treaty (CST) are to
hold a working meeting this week, an official in the press service of Russia's
Security Council has told Itar-Tass.
Participants in the meeting are to consider an urgent necessity to refine
cooperation among CST signatories with due regard for present-day conditions
and the adaptation of CST to present-day geopolitical situation.
The CST became an important landmark in the development of integrational
processes within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The past years confirmed an important role of the document in establishing
cooperation among CIS countries in the military, political, economic and other
fields.
The press service official pointed out that "life has proved the need to combine
efforts in establishing a collective security system within the CIS framework as a
component of an all-European security system as well as a possible security
system in Asia".
The CST was adopted in Tashkent on May 15, 1992, at first by the leaders of
six countries -- Armenia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and
Turkmenistan. Belarus joined the CST in June 1993, Azerbaijan in September
and Georgia in December 1993.
According the CST's Article 11, the Treaty "Is concluded for five years with a
subsequent extension" and "enters into force immediately after ratification
instruments have been deposted by the signatory states".
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Border of Uzbekistan to be strengthened, well defended
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The president signed a decree on the establishment of a committee for the security of state
border of Uzbekistan. With this decree the president brings frontier troops under his direct
control releasing from the control of the National Security Service (former KGB). Now the new
committee will be under the Chief Staff of the Frontier Troops. The decree also designates
January 14 as the Day of Frontier Troops. This day is also celebrated as the Nation's Defenders'
Day.
| (Itar-TASS) - The state border of Uzbekistan will be reliably strengthened and well defended, says a decree by President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, published on Thursday. This document envisages, in particular, "to form on the basis of the main staff of border troops the Committee for guarding the state border of the Republic of Uzbekistan subordinating it directly to the president of Uzbekistan. From now on, border troops are withdrawn from the Service of national security of Uzbekistan." The presidential decree also notes that all decisions of the newly formed Committee for guarding the state border, adopted within its jurisdiction, are compulsory for execution by ministries, departments, institutions, organisations, officials and citizens. The date of January 14 is proclaimed as the Border troops Day in the republic of Uzbekistan.
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Five more "Wahhabis" sentenced in Uzbekistan | (BBC) |
A Tashkent
court on 8 January found five men guilty of trying to
overthrow the government and sentenced them to jail
terms ranging from two to 12 years, AFP reported. The
five are reported to be members of an Islamic sect, the
Wahhabis, and to have links to Obidkhan Nazarov, the
former Imam of Tashkent's Tokhtoboy Mosque, who has been
in hiding for nearly one year. All five pleaded
innocence.
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Decree to assist pilgrims
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The Cabinet of Ministers issud a decree aimed at assisting pilgrims to
Mecca in 1999 from Uzbekistan. The Cabinet tasked the National Airways Company to help
with transportation at lower costs and the Ministry of Health to examine pilgrims. The National
Bank is assigned to allow pilgrims to exchange 1,380 U.S. dollars at the Central Bank rate
($1=110.74 soums) which is a good deal, because the black market rate is $1=375 soums.
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Uzbek leader greets Kazakh president's re-election
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Uzbek President Islam Karimov has
congratulated his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev on his victory in the
country's first contested presidential election, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman
said on Tuesday.
"The president of the Republic of Uzbekistan congratulated Nursultan
Nazarbayev on the occasion of his re-election and wished good health and
happiness to him, and peace and well-being to Kazakhstan's people," Bakhadyr
Umarov said.
The two countries' adherence to the principles of peace and good neighbourly
relations will help strengthen fraternity between Uzbekistan's and Kazakhstan's
peoples, Karimov's message said.
Nazarbayev secured seven years in office by winning 81 per cent of the vote on
Sunday.
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Ministry of Culture gets gold medal
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The Ministry of Culture of Uzbekisatn was awarded a gold medal by the International Association
for the Assistance in the Development of Industry, Science and Culture of France. Uzbekistan is the
first CIS state to receive such an award.
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Uzbekistan closes airwaves to the BBC | (Reuters) |
The British Broadcasting Corporation said on
Wednesday its radio programmes had been forced off the air in the former
Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.
Yuri Goligorsky, chief editor of broadcasting in Central Asia and the Caucasus,
said an Uzbek request for the BBC to move to Soviet-era frequencies from
medium wave made its programmes inaccessible to many people.
"We have been taken off the air," he told Reuters. "It was proposed that we
should move from medium wave to a less accessible wave band."
The decision is the latest in a series of clampdowns on international independent
media in a country where the authorities maintain strict control of the flow of
information.
The BBC's service, which is broadcast in Uzbek, Russian and English, can still
be heard on short wave during the night because the public broadcaster uses
transmitters in Western Europe, as it did during the Soviet era.
In September last year, the Russian language version of music station Europe
Plus was taken off the air in the capital city of Tashkent, while Russia's ORT
television programmes were cut back by one-third.
Virtually all cable television programmes have been banned in Tashkent and in
1997 Russia's Mayak and Youth Channel radio broadcasts were blocked.
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