INFORMATION DIGEST OF PRESS OF UZBEKISTAN # 99

May 22, 2017

POLITICS
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has arrived in Turkmenistan

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has arrived in Riadh

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attends the Arab Islamic American Summit

OFFICIALLY
Uzbekistan creates Uzbekgidroenergo

NAVOI FREE ECONOMIC ZONE
Tashkent has hosted a presentation of Uzbekistan’s first cosmetics plant in partnership with the Republic of Korea

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
Uzbekistan: Particular Attention to Human Rights

TOURISM
"Chimgan echo" eco-tourism festival to be held in June in Uzbekistan

POLITICS

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has arrived in Turkmenistan
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has arrived with a working visit to Turkmenistan today at the invitation of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
The Head of our State was greeted by Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov.
The national flags of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan was raised, a guard of honor was lined up in honour of the high-level guest at the Turkmenbashi international airport.
The meetings and negotiations, which will be held in the city of Turkmenbashi, will be a logical continuation of the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan dialogue at the highest level during the state visit of the President of our country to Turkmenistan on 6-7 March this year. The parties will discuss the issues of bilateral relations in political, trade-economic, investment, transport-communications, cultural-humanitarian and other spheres and also exchange views on regional and international topics.
Succeeding the negotiations of the Heads of state, several intergovernmental, inter-agency and other documents, aimed at further developing cooperation in various spheres are to be signed. Within the frameworks of the visit, a package of mutually beneficial commercial contracts and agreements between the business circles of the two countries is expected to be concluded as well.
The Head of our state Shavkat Mirziyoyev will also visit the “Avaza” national tourist zone, where children from different regions of Uzbekistan, who have been effected by the Aral environmental catastrophe, are receiving medical and recreational treatment.
(Source: UzA)

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has arrived in Riadh
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has arrived in Saudi Arabia to attend the Arab Islamic American summit on 21 May 2017 in Riyadh at the invitation of King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
An official meeting ceremony of the President of Uzbekistan took place. A guard of honour was lined up for the high-level guest.
Within the framework of the visit of the Head of our state to Saudi Arabia, several bilateral meetings are also expected to be held.
The issues of further developing cooperation between our countries in political, trade-economic, investment and other spheres will be considered during the negotiations with the King and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
* * *
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with President of the Islamic Development Bank Bandar Hajjar within the visit to Saudi Arabia.
Steady development of relations between Uzbekistan and the IDB, wide-scale cooperation of the parties in developing and implementing projects in social-economic areas was underlined at the meeting. Investments by the Islamic Development Bank in such spheres in Uzbekistan as healthcare, educations, irrigation, power industry, utilities, development of road infrastructure, support of small business are a vivid illustration of this.
The parties exchanged views on prospects of IDB’s involvement in organization of an international scientific-research centre at the Imam Bukhari memorial complex in Samarkand, specialised in studying rich cultural heritage of our great ancestors, who added invaluable contribution to the development of humanity.
Other issues of further developing mutually beneficial cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Development Bank were discussed at the meeting.
Following the negotiations, a Memorandum of understanding between the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Development Bank on establishing Imam Bukhari international scientific-research centre was signed.
(Source: UzA)

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attends the Arab Islamic American Summit
The Arab Islamic American Summit took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Heads of member-states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the US, Secretary-Generals of the UN, the League of Arab States, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf attended the summit.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, welcoming the participants of the summit, underlined that their partaking has an important significance for increasing the prestige of this forum.
The forum is significant as it facilitates in confronting extremism and terrorism, promotion of the ideas of tolerance, strengthening security, stability and cooperation.
The agenda of the Arab Islamic American Summit includes issues of ensuring global peace and stability, joint countering against terrorism and violence. The attention of the summit participants was drawn towards preventing threats to peace, maintaining national and religious values and cultures of all nations.
During the years of independence, wide-scale works in this area have been implemented in our country. The foundation of these noble works is a peace-loving policy of Uzbekistan, implemented under the First President of our country, which is being consistently continued today. Establishment of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone has been an important pace in ensuring peace and security in the region. First President of our country Islam Karimov put forward the initiative on establishing International centre on countering terrorism under the UN at the Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1999. Establishment of the Counter-terrorism committee within the UN Security Council was its practical implementation.
The Actions Strategy on five priority areas of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021, elaborated at the initiative of the Head of our state Shavkat Mirziyoyev, a specific attention is paid to the issues of reinforcing security, inter-ethnic accord and religious tolerance, tasks on improving legal base of foreign political and foreign economic activities, international cooperation.
At present Uzbekistan presides at the Council of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The 43rd session of the Council took place in Tashkent in 2016. President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, speaking at the session, underscored that enlightenment and education are key to prosperity of nations, strengthen the people’s endeavours for noble deeds, kindness and patience.
The Arab Islamic American summit will facilitate further increasing the authority of Islam, enhancing friendly relations and cooperation among countries, consolidating their efforts in countering terrorism, extremism, transnational organized crime, weapons and drug trafficking.
(Source: UzA)

OFFICIALLY

Uzbekistan creates Uzbekgidroenergo
President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree “On formation of joint stock company “Uzbekgidroenergo” on 19 May.
The decree was adopted in order to effectively use Uzbekistan’s hydropower potential, form a unified water and energy resources management system, and consistently increase the share of renewable hydropower resources in the structure of electric power production.
Uzbekhydroenergo is formed on the basis of hydroelectric power stations, hydrotechnical and other hydropower related units of JSC Uzbekenergo and the association Uzsuvenergo of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of Uzbekistan.
The new company will be part of the Cabinet of Ministers’ complex on geology, fuel and energy complex, chemical, petrochemical and metallurgical industries.
Uzbekhydroenergo will implement a unified technical policy in the field of electric power production at hydroelectric power stations, ensuring safe and efficient operation of hydraulic structures, as well as centralized technological management of hydropower facilities.
The company will develop and implement hydropower development programs based on the integrated development of hydropower potential and ensuring an increase in the share of hydropower in the structure of the energy balance of the republic.
The company will also implement investment projects for construction of new and modernization of existing hydroelectric power stations.
Uzbekenergo will purchase electricity, which produced by enterprises of Uzbekgidroenergy.
(Source: UzDaily.com)

NAVOI FREE ECONOMIC ZONE

Tashkent has hosted a presentation of Uzbekistan’s first cosmetics plant in partnership with the Republic of Korea
A new Navoiy Beauty Cosmetics company was founded in the Navoi Free Economic Zone with the support of the Korean Association of Cosmetic Manufacturers and the leading group of companies CNP Dream.
The plant with a capacity of three million units a year produces more than 200 types of cosmetics by Korean technologies. The catalog presents cosmetic products for face, body, hair and perfumery care.
“We produce high-quality cosmetics to Korean technologies. The facility in Navoi presently employs about 50 people, including experts from South Korea. They monitor compliance with all technologies and quality of the manufactured product. This is, actually, the first and so far the only domestic brand of care and decorative cosmetics. Our products combine high quality and reasonable price,” said Director General Gulbahor Yuldasheva.
In fact, as noted by Gulbahor Yuldasheva, this is the same Korean cosmetics, which is now imported in large amounts, but for less money, because it is produced in Uzbekistan.
According to representatives of Navoi Beauty Cosmetics, they faced a challenge to ensure that the products manufactured in Uzbekistan were not inferior in quality to Korean cosmetics. Of course, given the climatic conditions of the country, producers had to slightly revise the product line and partially change the recipe. At the same time, the products are produced on the basis of traditional components of Korean cosmetics - snail extract, snake venom and black caviar.
To date, domestic producers have already set up exports to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and are currently negotiating with importers from Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Mongolia.
In addition, the La Core Company signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Tashkent Pharmaceutical Institute. Within the framework of the document, the Institute will open cosmetics specialist courses and a research and engineering laboratory. The domestic cosmetics has not yet come in retail sale, but is available at official dealer points. There, customers are welcome to test products and get free advice.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Uzbekistan: Particular Attention to Human Rights
A delegation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights led by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein visited Uzbekistan in early May.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was received by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. During the meeting, it was emphasized the importance of further evolving and strengthening the constructive and open dialogue between Uzbekistan and the United Nations, the institutions of this authoritative international organization, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
It should be noted that in our republic, the protection of human rights is seen as one of the priorities of the cooperation with the UN. A stable political system were created in the country that meets the modern criteria of democracy and human rights, the legislative, executive and judicial authorities of all levels are actively working. However the most crucial thing is that the society affirms the respect for the principles of the rule of law and human rights.
Uzbekistan developed the national indicators on the realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Strategy for Actions adopted by the head of our state on the five priority directions of the country’s development in 2017-2021 is a road map for the implementation of sustainable development goals of the UN. It is important to note that the opinions of not only the expert community, but also the general public, as well as our international partners, including the UNDP were taken into account during the adoption of the Strategy for Actions.
Uzbekistan is the first of the Central Asian states to create a system of national human rights institutions which includes the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the National Center for Human Rights. Most recently, Uzbekistan created a new extrajudicial mechanism to protect the rights of entrepreneurs - the Business Ombudsman.
As part of the realization of the Strategy for Actions, legislative and organizational measures have already been taken to further strengthen the rule of law and the true independence of the court. For example, in order to prevent the bureaucracy and unreasonable delay of the courts, the terms of their consideration were radically revised. The application of the Habeas Corpus institute was expanded, the periods of preliminary detention were shortened up to 48 hours, as well as the preliminary investigation, the powers of lawyers in judicial proceedings were strengthened.
These measures were aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Human Rights Council and the UN treaty bodies on the outcomes of the consideration of the national reports of Uzbekistan.
The institutions of civil society play an increasingly significant role in securing the human rights. An open, strong civil society cannot be imagined today without a developed system of independent political parties, independent non-profit organizations, free media and other civil society institutions representing the interests of various social groups and broad sections of the population.
Today in Uzbekistan there are more than 8,700 non-governmental organizations, 2,239 religious organizations, 1,400 mass media. These figures clearly demonstrate the role played by civil institutions in the life of our society.
The texts of the main international documents of the UN, ILO, UNESCO in the field of human rights were translated into the state language and are widely used in the system of primary, secondary and higher education. The courses on human rights are conducted in the training and professional development of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, jurists, law enforcement officers, military personnel, representatives of business structures.
The delegation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also met with the speaker of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis, the director of the National Center for Human Rights of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the chairman of the Women’s Committee, the Ombudsman and others.
The delegation also paid a visit to Samarkand where the discussions were carried out with representatives of national cultural centers and religious confessions. The UN High Commissioner visited the People’s Reception Office of the President of Uzbekistan in the Samarkand region, as well as the citizens gathering of the mahalla "Yuksalish".
During the visit, Zeid al-Hussein stressed that consistent reforms are underway in Uzbekistan on the basis of the Strategy for Actions and noted the special attention placed on the human rights in this process.
"We understand that these reforms are long-term, it will take some time to realize them, but most importantly, the process has already begun. We want to act within the framework of these reforms, both partners of the government and civil society. Only together we can solve existing problems", said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.
A preliminary agreement with Uzbekistan on the resumption of cooperation with special rapporteurs and establishment of the work with the Regional Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bishkek can be called one of the significant outcomes of the visit.
Zeid al-Hussein assured that the Office of the High Commissioner supports all directions of judicial and legal reform in Uzbekistan, stressing that the most important is the expansion of alternative types of punishment which is a significant legal guarantee for securing the rights of the individual".
In addition, he noted the importance of promoting women in public administration, holding high positions, ensuring gender equality. This, in his opinion, will be vitally crucial for the country in order to fulfill those ambitious tasks that are on the agenda.
Highly assessing the results of his visit, the UN High Commissioner confirmed his readiness to develop long-term and systematic cooperation with our country.
For my part, I want to add that the Uzbek side values the prospects for a constitutional and equal dialogue with the Office of the UN High Commissioner and hopes that the results of the talks will be a powerful incentive for the fruitful advancement of the relations in the field of human rights.
Akmal Saidov, Director of the National Center for Human Rights of the Republic of Uzbekistan
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)

TOURISM

"Chimgan echo" eco-tourism festival to be held in June in Uzbekistan
From 9 to 11 June, the Federation of extreme and mountain tourism of Uzbekistan organizes the traditional eco-tourism festival "Chimgan echo-2017".
The international eco-tourism festival "Chimgan echo" was first organized in 1977.
For 40 years the festival has been transformed from a purely singing contest to a broader program that includes ecological campaign "We are for clean Chimgan!", cleaning Chimgan gorges from the debris which is accumulated due to careless pseudo-tourists and people far from the recreation.
(Source: UzReport.uz)

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