| October 23-October 30, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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World Bank concerned over slow pace of Uzbek economic reform
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|  n an assessment released on 21 October, the World Bank's
mission to Uzbekistan warned that failure to proceed
resolutely with comprehensive economic restructuring,
including privatization, could pose a threat to medium- and
long-term macro-economic stability, Interfax reported four
days later. Noting that economic decline in Uzbekistan during
the years immediately following the collapse of the USSR was
less than in other former Soviet republics, the report
pointed to factors that could undermine economic stability.
Those factors include a drop in exports since mid-1998,
falling world market prices for the country's main exports of
cotton and gold, an increase in foreign debt, and the growing
divergence between official and black market exchange rates
for the national currency.
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Over 200 kg of drugs confiscated in Uzbekistan
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|  ver 200 kilograms of narcotic drugs were confiscated at the Aibek customs post in
the Tashkent region on Tuesday, Chairman of the Uzbek Customs Committee Major-General Kamilov told Itar-Tass.
A preliminary inspection of a KamAZ truck revealed nothing, but the sniffer dogs found 223 kilograms 270 grams of opium and
heroin under eight tonnes of onion the truck carried from Tajikistan to Russia via Uzbekistan.
Over 1,800 kilograms of opium and heroin have been confiscated since the beginning of this year by Uzbek customs officers and
staffers of the national security service, Kamilov said.
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IFES holds polls in Uzbekistan
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|  he International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) held survey in Uzbekistan. 82% of the respondents agreed Uzbekistan was undergoing great changes. 80% said the government was able to significantly improve the living standards of people. 53% of the respondents answered that it was the President who had the most impact on their lives. 92% named "honesty" as President Karimov's main qualities. 70% said he was a strong leader with 66% noting that he was pragmatic and cared about people's needs. 22% wish the president had closer contacts with Muslim countries with 19% wishing he had better relations with Russia and 15% saying they wanted the president to maintain contacts with the West. 52% of the respondents said they would participate in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections for sure. 82% believe the elections will be fair and only 6% said they didn't believe so.
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Cabinet of Ministers reviews economic achievements and problems
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| he Cabinet of Ministers held a meeting on the results of the nation's socio-economic development in the past nine months. Prime-Minister Utkir Sultanov chaired the meeting. "GDP was at 104% in comparison with the last year's index. The volume of production in the industry rose by 5.9%, in agriculture — by 5.8%, in engineering — by 3.6%. Retail sale grew by 11% with paid services increasing by 11.5%." It was also mentioned that advanced know-how and technology of other countries was not being fully used to develop small and medium-sized businesses.
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Uzbek cotton harvest at 3.5 mln t., up on 1998
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|  zbekistan has harvested 3.5 million tonnes of raw cotton so far this year and may produce a
total of 4.0 million tonnes, a spokesman for the Farm and Water Resources Ministry said on Tuesday.
"Exactly 3.5 million tonnes has been harvested compared with 2.8 million tonnes for the same period last year," he said.
The spokesman said farmers might produce a total of 4.0 million tonnes of raw cotton this year if good weather continued. The
harvest season ends in the first week of November.
Uzbekistan produced a disastrous 3.2 million tonnes of cotton last year due to unseasonal rains.
The ministry attributed the faster harvest rate this year to favourable weather and improved technology. Farmers had been
harvesting up to 40,000 tonnes a day, it said.
Uzbekistan relies heavily on cotton for hard currency export earnings, raising $1.36 billion from last year's crop, or nearly 40
percent of total export revenues.
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OSCE Commissioner visits Uzbekistan
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|  resident Karimov met with visiting OSCE High Commissioner for national minorities, Max van der Stoel. There are representatives of more than a hundred nationalities in Uzbekistan. President Karimov said that they had equal rights and freedom despite differences in political views, nationality, religion. A vivid example is the operation of a number of national cultural centers of different nationalities in the country. The purpose of the OSCE commissioner's visit to Uzbekistan is to get acquainted with these cultural centers as well. Max van der Stoel also met with Parliament speaker Erkin Khalilov.(Interfax) Islam Karimov told visiting OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Max van der Stoel in Tashkent on 25 October that Uzbekistan "will implement the international community's human rights requirements," Interfax reported. Van der Stoel told journalists after the talks that Karimov had briefed him in detail on preparations for the 5 December parliamentary elections. He said that he also discussed with Karimov the threat posed to Uzbekistan by terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Interfax on 21 October quoted U.S. Ambassador David Johnson as calling for amending the election law to reduce the number of signatures a candidate must collect to register. Johnson added that the Uzbek leadership should meet minimum standards in allowing international observers to monitor the poll.
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