Uzbekistan Commercial News Update

September 2007

Prepared by Mr. Jahangir Kakharov,
BISNIS Representative, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Metro Group enters Uzbekistan market

TASHKENT. August 31 (Uzreport) - The opening of the office of the UNIVEG-ASIA Corporation in Tashkent was conducted in an official ceremony on 30 August at the Intercontinental Hotel. The event was organized within the frame of the visit of the Metro Group delegation headed by its CEO Mr. Franz Muller.

Uzbekistan has great conditions for the cultivation of high quality fruit and vegetables. Good soil and favourable climate provide all the preconditions for this. Realizing this fact, Metro Group intends to procure agricultural products in Uzbekistan and market it in Russia. With the support of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Metro Group intends to expand cooperation with Uzbek agricultural producers.

By sharing the know-how and integrating modern technology within the frame of this cooperation, the Group aims achieve richer harvest and higher quality of products. The company also has the plans of training local producers and familiarizing them with the quality standards set by the Group. The Group's Uzbekistan Office will also organize a series of lectures at the agricultural colleges of Uzbekistan and try new varieties of grains in the local conditions.

METRO Group is one of the largest and most international retailing companies worldwide: Some 270,000 employees from 150 nations are working at around 2,400 outlets in 30 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. The Group's turnover totaled some 60 billion euros in 2006. The portfolio of the Group's strong sales brands offers a wide range of services for private and commercial customers:

• Metro Cash & Carry, the world's market leader in cash & carry;

• Real hypermarkets and Extra supermarkets;

• Media Markt and Saturn, Europe's leader in consumer electronic retailing;

• Galeria Kaufhof, the system leader in the department store business.

All sales brands of the METRO Group take leading market positions in their respective segment and demonstrate their competence in trade and retail on a daily basis. Responsibility towards customers, stockholders and the public characterizes the Group's corporate thinking and action.

In the German market the retailer plans to acquire a chain of Wal-Mart stores. However, the main focus it intends to place on the development of business outside Germany. This year it plans to investment some 2.5 billion euros. A major portion of these funds will be invested in the expansion of the Cash and Carry and Media Markt/Saturn abroad. The first steps in this direction have already been taken by the company last year, when it acquired its Polish competitor Géant. By investing in the development of operations abroad, the company intends to reduce its dependency on the German market, where it still earns more than a half of its revenue.

Germany is one of the largest investors in the economy of Uzbekistan. To date, about 95 projects for over 1 billion euros have been implemented in the country in partnership with German banks. According to the agreement "On partnership and cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the EU", the regime most favourable for trade has been created between the two states. In 2006, the volume of bilateral trade between Uzbekistan and Germany comprised US$324 million.

The Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investment and Trade of Uzbekistan has accredited the offices of 51 companies and firms of the Federative Republic of Germany, including Siemens, DaimlerChrysler, ThyssenKrupp, BASF, Lufthansa, Alkatel, Beyer, Ferrostal, and others. The offices of Deutsche Bank AG, Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Commerzbank AG, and Dresdner Bank AG are successfully functioning in Tashkent.

Cement plant construction launched in Jizzakh

TASHKENT. August 31 (Rosbalt) - The construction of a cement plant with the yearly production capacity of 3 million tons has been launched in Zafarbad district of Jizzakh region. The project is a joint initiative of UzQurilishMateriallari (UzBuildMaterials) Company and Russian TKB-Invest. The protocol of intention to set up a joint venture to build the plant was signed in spring of this year.

The total project cost is estimated at US$486.42 million, according to UzQurilishMateriallari. The construction is to be completed by the early 2010. The plant is being erected near the hills with large deposits of sand, limestone and basalt. The plant's production area, including the open pits, engineering communications, and utility areas exceeds 100 hectares.

According to the unconfirmed data, the project will be financed through the funds and loans borrowed by the Russian company. UzQurilishMateriallari and TKB-Invest have announced a tender for the delivery and assembly of technology to equip the new enterprise.

Uzbekistan currently has six cement plants with the total capacity of 6.5 million tons. The volume of production in 2006 totaled 5.582 million tons, which exceeds the 2005 results by 10.2%. In general, 12 types of cement are produced in the country, including portland cement, white cement and oil-well cement. Portland cement dominates the market with 99.3% of the aggregate production output. The shares of white and oil-well cement are insignificant.

Cement remains one of the main products of the construction materials industry of Uzbekistan with 72% of the market, and 75% of construction materials exports. About a fifth of all cement produced in the country (up to 1 million tons) is exported to the neighboring countries: 31.3% to Tajikistan, 20.8% to Kazakhstan, 20.3% to Turkmenistan, 17.3% to Afghanistan, 10.2% to Kyrgyzstan. In 2006, cement export volume grew by 18.5% to US$37.9 million.

The Government of Uzbekistan has approved the programme of modernization, technical and technological re-equipment of construction material producing enterprises for 2007-2010. Within the next five years 36 major projects envisaging the installation of modern equipment will be carried out at 14 large enterprises. The programme is financed in part by the enterprises themselves, and in part through FDI and borrowed funds.

The projects in this sector envision the replacement of quarry equipment, modernization of raw and cement mills, installation of new production lines, and repair of existing capacities. As a result, cement product is expected to soar. It will increase 1.5 times compared to 2006 to 8.3 million tons.

Uzbek GDP made up 10,115.6 billion soums in 1H 2007, 9.7% growth

TASHKENT. September 4 (Uzreport) - The nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of Uzbekistan comprised 10,115.6 billion soums in the first half of 2007. The real GDP growth made up 9.7%. The GDP deflator, in the reporting period, constituted 117.8% as compared to the prices of January-June 2006, according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan.

In general, about 75.3% of the GDP was contributed by the non-state sector of the economy (up 1.5%), and 24.7 % - by the state sector.

Industry-wise, the shares of different sectors of the economy in the total country GDP were as follows: industrial production - 25.9% (down from 27.2% in 2006); agriculture – 11.8% (down from 12.6%); construction – 6.7% (up from 5.8%); transportation and communication – 11.3% (down from 11.4%); trade and catering - 10.8% (up from 10.5%), and other – 20.9% (up from 19.9%).

In general, the growth of production is observed across all sectors: construction has grown by 20.5%, transportation and communication – by 15.2%, trade and catering – by 18.9%, industrial production – by 6.5%, agriculture – by 5.5%, and production in other spheres – by 8.2%.

Product-wise, the production of goods continues to dominate with about 44.6% of the GDP (down from 45.8%). Production of services has grown from 41.6% of the GDP in the first six months of 2006, to 42.8% in the reporting period.

The share of small business in the total volume of GDP was recorded at 38.1 %, up from 34.1% last year. Small enterprises and microfirms contributed about 21.0 % of the total GDP, which exceeds their last year's GDP share by 3.9 percentage points.

In several regions the, regional GDP growth was above the country average. Thus, in the Republic of Karakalpakstan it constituted 12.1 %, in Andijan region -12.0 %, in Bukhara region - 11.4%, in Samarkand region – 11.4 %, in Kashkadarya region – 10.6%, in Surkhandarya region – 9.8% and in the city of Tashkent – 11.8%.

Foreign trade turnover of Uzbekistan grows by 26.3% year-on-year in 1H 2007

TASHKENT. September 5 (Uzreport) - In January-June 2007, the foreign trade turnover of Uzbekistan amounted to US$6,602.3 million or 126.3% of the result for January-June 2006. Of this exports comprised US$4,129.4 million and imports – US$2,472.9 million (up 39% and 9.5% respectively).

According to the Uzbek State Statistics Committee, foreign trade with the countries of CIS grew by 58% to US$3,269.5 million, with other countries – by 5.5% to US$3,332.8 million. Exports to CIS grew by 74.1%, and to other countries – by 17.2%. Imports from CIS increased by 38.4%, whereas imports from other countries declined by 10.7%. The trade balance was positive and the surplus made up US$1,656.5 million including US$692.3 million with the CIS countries and US$964.2 million with other foreign countries.

The structure of exports is still dominated by cotton fibre 16.7% (down from 22.8% in 2006), products of oil and energy sectors 19.8% (up from 13.3%), ferrous and non-ferrous metals – 12.3% (up from 11.8%), services 10.9% (down from 12.2%). Among other exported products are machines and equipment 9.6% (up from 8.8%), foodstuffs 7% (up from 4.7%), chemical products – 5.6% (up from 4.9%), and other – 18.1% (down from 21.5%).

Imports, on the other hand, are dominated by machines and equipment 44.4% (down from 47.6%), chemical products – 14.8% (up from 14.2%), foodstuffs – 8% (down from 8.3%), services – 8.3% (up from 7.7%) ferrous and non-ferrous metals 7.9% (up from 7.1%), and products of energy and oil and gas industries – 4.9% (up from 3.4%).

Uzbekistan's main trade partners are still Russia (28.8% of total foreign trade turnover), Kazakhstan – 8.8%, Ukraine – 6.3%, Turkey – 5.8%, China – 5.5%, Iran – 5.4%, Korea – 4.5%, Germany 2.3%, Switzerland – 2.3%, and Tajikistan – 1.9%. Trade with France, Great Britain, Kyrgyzstan and the US made up 1.2-1.8% of Uzbekistan's total foreign trade each. Trade with Belarus, UAE, Latvia, Azerbaijan, India, Japan, Turkmenistan – fell within the range of 0.5%-0.9% of the total trade turnover, and trade with Austria, Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium made up about 0.3-0.4% each.

In general, in the reporting period Uzbekistan conducted external trade operations with 143 countries of the world and with 78 of them it had positive balance of external trade turnover.

281 enterprises privatized in Uzbekistan in Jan-Jun 2007

TASHKENT. September 5 (Uzreport) - Within the frame of the State Privatization Programme, according to the data of the State Property Committee, 281 enterprises and projects were privatized in January-June 2007. The majority of these objects are located in Tashkent region (20.6%), the city of Tashkent (16.4%), Ferghana region (8.9%), Samarkand region (7.1%) and Surkhandarya region (7.1%). In the structure of privatized state property the highest share belonged to the objects formerly owned by khokimiats (city authorities) – 31.7%, Ministry of Public Education (14.9%), Ministry of Health (8.2%), Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management (7.5%), Uzbekneftegaz Oil and Gas Holding (5.3%). In January-June 2007 actual earnings from privatization and denationalisation of projects amounted to 50.8 billion soums. A major portion of them was received for objects in the city of Tashkent (48.1%), Tashkent region (31.5%), Khorezm region (7.0%) and Samarkand region (4.4%).

Small businesses contribute 38.1% of country's GDP in 1H 2007

TASHKENT. September 5 (Uzreport) - The number of registered small business entities reached 415,000 as of 1 July, 2007. In the first half of 2007 small business entities contributed 38.1% of the GDP (up from 34.1% in January-June 2006), of which 7.7 % belong to small enterprises, 13.3% – to microfirms and 17.1% – to individual entrepreneurs. According to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, about 71.8 % of total employed population (or 7,594,400 people) are employed in the sector of small business. The majority of them are individual entrepreneurs – 54.6% (or 5,780,500 people). Those employed in small enterprises and microfirms constitute 17.2% (or 1813.9 thousand persons) of all employed.

Industrial output of small business entities increased by 38.8% and reached 978.1 billion soums (11.4% of total industrial production), the production of agricultural products increased by 8.9% and amounted to 3,385.8 billion soums (97.3% of gross agricultural production). The share of small business entities in fixed capital investment of the republic made up 18.5%, construction works – 49.1%.

The freight turnover of motor transport of small business entities increased by 20.3% and accounted for 66.6% of the total volume of freight turnover. Passenger conveyance by small business entities increased by 20.9% and reached 85.5% of the total volume of passenger turnover.

Moreover, small enterprises contributed about 44.9% or 1,947.3 billion soums to the total volume of retail trade turnover (growth – by 22.0%) and 45.5% or 573.6 billion soums to the total volume of paid services rendered to population (up 14.3%).

The share of small business entities in foreign trade turnover of Uzbekistan made up 19.5%. Small business entities exported goods to the amount of US$511.2 million (12.4% of total exports) and imported goods to the amount of US$776.6 million (31.4% of total imports).

Total loans extended to small business entities by commercial banks at the expense of their own resources amounted to 374.2 billion soums, and those appropriated from the credit lines of international financial institutions – US$20.89 million.

The share of the private sector in small business is high. The share of private enterprises (ownership of citizens) in total output of small business in January-June 2007 was as follows: in the industrial production – 41.3%, in agriculture – 100%, in construction – 71.5%, in retail trade – 81.8%, in paid services – 81.8%, in transportation of cargo – 93.1%, in transportation of passengers – 97.6%, in exports – 46%, in imports – 22.7%.

Number of mobile users in Uzbekistan exceeds 4.2 million

TASHKENT. September 12 (Uzreport) - The number of mobile network subscribers in Uzbekistan reached 4.27 million as of 1 September 2007, according to the State Commission for Radio-Frequencies of Uzbekistan. The level of penetration of mobile services has reached 16.1%, INFOCOM.UZ reported. In the month of August alone, the growth of mobile subscribers made up 314,000 or 7.9%. Since the beginning of the year the number of mobile users has grown by 1.55 million or 57%. The penetration level has expanded from 10.2% to 16.1%.

As reported earlier, the number of mobile users equaled about 2.72 million as of 1 January 2007. Despite the slow down typical for the summer vacation season, the growth rate turned out to be quite high in August. To compare in February the growth made up 243,000, and in July – 211,000.

Today, Uzbekistan has five mobile operators – MTS Uzbekistan (Uzdunrobita, GSM standard), Unitel (Beeline, GSM standard), COSCOM (GSM standard), Rubicon Wireless Communication (Perfectum Mobile, CDMA standard), and Uzbektelecom Mobile branch of Uzbektelecom (UzMobile, CDMA standard).

A brief history of the development of the market for mobile services in Uzbekistan:

In August 1991, Uzdunrobita Uzbek-American joint venture was founded through direct participation of the Ministry of Communication and the support of the Government of Uzbekistan. It was the first mobile company not only in Uzbekistan, but in Central Asia.

The first mobile call in Uzbekistan was made by the country's President Islam Karimov in August 1992, when the commercial exploitation of the Uzdunrobita JV's mobile network was officially launched.

The first mobile standard launched and operated by the only mobile operator in Uzbekistan at that time was the NMT 450 standard.

The number of subscribers in Uzbekistan grew to only about 224 by January 1994, and in 1995, it increased to 823.

In November 1995, Uzdunrobita JV fully abandoned the old standard and adopted a new (at that time) AMPS/DAMPS standard.

In the early 1996, Uzbekistan had 3,804 subscribers. In the early 1996, only one operator existed in the market, but by the end of the year, five new companies had joined it and started their operation in 1997. The growth of the operators had an immediate effect on the number of subscribers. As of 1 January 1997, the number of mobile users in Uzbekistan grew to 9,543, and as of 1 January 1998 – to 21,555. The annual growth made up 225%. The mobile service rates were decreased several times. To compare, in 1995, 100 minutes of incoming and outgoing calls cost about US$105, and by the end of 2000, the prices dropped to about US$20 on average.

In 1997, the number of operators in the market decreased to six. They used mainly two most popular standards Digital AMPS (IS-136) and GSM. In September 2001, the CDMA standard mobile network of Perfectum Mobile was launched by Rubicon Wireless Communication.

The years 2000 and 2001 saw fast regional expansion of Uzdunrobita's competitors. By the end of 2002, a major part of the population of Uzbekistan was covered by the networks of three operators. This trend has been kept to this day, and the integration of new products has been the main factor of competition for the new subscribers since then. All operators, factually operating in the market of Uzbekistan, have licenses to operate on the whole territory of Uzbekistan.

In 2004, Uzbektelecom Mobile branch of the Uzbektelecom Company was founded. In 2005, it launched the CMA-450 standard wireless radio-access services. Since March 2005, the network's test exploitation has been carried out in Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Bukhara, Navoi, Jizzakh, Samarkand, and Kashkadarya regions.

The number of mobile users reached 554,000 as of 1 January 2005. In the first decade of November 2005, the number of mobile users exceeded 1 million. The second million was recorded in September 2006, and the third million – in February 2007. In August this year, the number of mobile users in Uzbekistan reached 4 million.

If the growth rates are kept, by the early November 2007 the number of subscribers may reach 5 million.

Uzbektelecom modernizes fixed line telephone network in Tashkent

TASHKENT. September 12 (Uzreport) - In line with the plan on modernization and development of the fixed line telephone network in Tashkent city, in September this year Uzbektelecom started to gradually replace the old telephone numbers of the switching stations number 50, 51, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 63-66, 68 with the new digital numbers starting with 250, 251, 254, 255, 257, 258, 260, 263-266, 268.

The replacement of the numbers of the switching stations number 60/63 is planned to start on 10 September. From the 17 September, the company will start the replacement of the numbers of the switching station number 50, 51.

The old six-digit telephone numbers are being replaced by seven-digit numbers using the service technologies of the unification of voice access and other data transmission services.

Uzbektelecom is the national telecommunication operator of Uzbekistan. The company has 19 branches, including 14 regional and five specialized. The company also has shares in eight joint ventures. The local telephone network of the company includes over 2,000 switching stations with the capacity for 1.9 million numbers. The network has been digitalized to 80%.

Xerox opens its new office in Uzbekistan

TASHKENT. September 19 (Uzreport) - The opening ceremony of the new office of Xerox in Uzbekistan was held at the Intercontinental hotel on 14 September. The new office in the capital expands the possibilities of Xerox on giving timely consultation and high qualified technical support for clients and partners of the company.

"The work of the new office will be directed to form and develop constant relations with the regional clients," said the head of the representative office of Xerox Ltd in Central Asia, Yulian Grigorov, at the press conference.

"Xerox corporation actively expands the geography of its presence. Xerox has a representative office in Kazakhstan with two fully functioning offices and we are expanding our activity by opening the office in Tashkent. We expect that opening local representative office will not only contribute to strengthening the position of the company in the region, but it will make its contribution to the development programme of computerization and information-communication technologies of the country by means of providing Uzbek IT-market with the advanced technology and affordable products," Yulian Grigorov noted.

Today's Xerox products are colour and monochrome multifunctional device, printers and photo copying machines most of which have been rewarded. The office equipment is supplied with Xerox and its partners' software intended for optimization of production processes such as converting contracts to the digital archive format.

Besides, Xerox is one of the world's largest manufacturers of paper and consumables for the office equipment. Nowadays Xerox is functioning in 170 countries of the world producing more that 200 denomination of the products.

Founded in 2004, the division of Xerox Eurasia unites 23 countries including Russia, CIS states, Baltic states, Asia, Caucasus and Eastern Europe. It is headquartered in Moscow and the company's regional offices are based in Almaty, Astana, Belgrad, Bucharest, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kiev, Minsk, Novosibirsk, Riga, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Sofia, Tashkent and Tyumen. All of the Xerox Eurasia representative offices can provide full range of services on the sale and technical support of Xerox equipment. Xerox Eurasia affiliate network includes more than 1,000 major partners and resellers. Xerox Eurasia's after-sales service system totals over 550 service centers.

From the beginning of 2007 Xerox put into the market 28 new devices, including 10 full featured printers, which is twice more than in 2006. More than two thirds of the Xerox equipment sale turnover is the share of the products which were put into the market over the past two years. Full colour equipment sale turnover grew by 12% in the second quarter and now makes up 38% from the total turnover of Xerox which exceeds the same figure of 2006 by 4%.

The supply in the Uzbek IT-market, according to experts, virtually does not fall behind from the world tendencies. The general growth rates make up about 10-15% annually. All the new devices that appear in the market of developed countries can be bought at the company. All these depend on the client's wish and the availability of technical equipment in the warehouse.

"Opening the new Xerox office in Tashkent will immediately enable us to solve several tasks: the coordination of orders and shipments of Xerox equipment will be more efficient; our clients and partners in Uzbekistan will have an opportunity to get consultations about products in the state language as well. We put a task to broaden the partnership networks, attracting prospective customers and increasing the sales volume of Xerox equipment soon," regional representative of Xerox in Uzbekistan, Otabek Kurbanov, added.

Coscom: a step up in fierce competition for market leadership

TASHKENT. September 21 (Uzreport) - To change the positions of the top three players of the market for mobile services in Uzbekistan is the ambitious plan of the Coscom mobile operator, which has recently changed owners to TeliaSonera represented in the Asian region by Fintur Holdings B.V.

This was announced by the representative of TeliaSoner and Fintur Holdings B.V. Mr. Selim Oktar in a press briefing.

Coscom has recently been acquired by the European communication services company, Telia Sonera. In the early July of this year, the Swedish-Finnish telecommunication giant announced 100% acquisition of the American MCT Corp., the owner of several large operators in the Central Asian region, including Coscom in Uzbekistan. In the Asian region TeliaSonera is represented by Fintur Holdings, which will take the responsibility for managing Coscom. Coscom's new Director-General Bora Baysal said: "This deal illustrates TeliaSonera's strategy to become the leading mobile operator in Eurasia, strengthen and expand its presence in the region."

It is within the company's plans to make investments of at least US$160 million in the Uzbek mobile operator within the next ten years to develop its network and new services, raise the qualifications of the staff and increase the number of service points.

Fintur Holdings B.V. is a consolidated subsidiary joint venture of the Turkish Turkcell and European TeliaSonera. Representing business in four companies in the Eurasian region, Fintur provides mobile services to over 8.7 million subscribers. The company's turnover averages US$1.2 billion.

TeliaSonera is an open type shareholding company with over 750,000 shareholders and more than 35,000 employees working in 16 countries of the world. Founded in 2002 through the merger of Finnish Telia AB and Swedish Sonera Corporation, it now focuses on provision of mobile communication services, and together with its subsidiaries services some 80.1 million clients in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Baltic countries, Turkey and Russia.

Coscom has been in the mobile services market of Uzbekistan for eleven years. The main area of the company's activity is the creation and subsequent development of the modern system of GSM 900/1800 standard mobile services. In 2004, the company was the first and the only mobile company to receive an ISO 9001:2000 quality management system certificate. The total number of the company's subscribers currently comprises 400,000 people. The main task for the company at this point and for the short future is to prove itself as a leading high-quality mobile operator in Uzbekistan, relying on its European experience and competence.

Cabinet of Ministers considers 2008 state budget of Uzbekistan

TASHKENT. September 28 (UzA) - The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan considered the macroeconomic forecast, the concept of tax and budget policy and the draft state budget for 2008 on 26 September. Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev conducted the Cabinet session, UzA reported.

Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Rustam Azimov, Economy Minister Botir Khodjayev, State Tax Committee Chairman Botir Parpiyev, State Customs Committee Chairman Sodirkhon Nosirov, Commerce and Industry Chamber Chairman Alisher Shaykhov, Tashkent Mayor Abdukahhar Tukhtayev and others spoke at the session.

The Cabinet supported the proposals of the economy and finance ministries on macroeconomic forecast for 2008, which envisages keeping the real GDP growth at the minimum level of 8%, the growth of industrial sectors of 9.6%, the increase of the capital investments by 16% and the inflation level at 6-8% with the growth of the real incomes of the population.

Minister of Public Education Turobjon Jurayev and Health Minister Feruz Nazirov in their reports drew attention to rational and efficient use of budget funds in implementing state programs of personnel training, school education development, healthcare reform and social protection of the population.

During the discussions, concrete proposals were elaborated on the improvement of the tax and budget policy and 2008 budget parameters.

In particular, it was proposed to reduce the single tax for micro firms and small enterprises from 10% to 8% in order to create additional incentives for small business development and solving the employment problems.

It was also proposed to reduce excise tax for natural gas by 5% and income tax for commercial banks by 2%, as well as cancel the excise tax for consumer goods produced in Uzbekistan.

To meet the task of increasing the salaries and other payments 2.5 times during 2007-2009 set by President Islam Karimov, the supply of the 2008 budget envisages additional assignations for gradual increase of the salaries, pensions, stipends and allowances.

At the same time, it was suggested to bring the share of the supply for social sector and social protection of the population to 54%.

The Cabinet also considered issues of improvement of budget planning and financing educational institutions, providing state support to farms growing cotton at low-yield lands, and cardinal increase of financing for land-reclamation.

After the discussions, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the macroeconomic forecast, the concept of tax and budget policy and the draft of the 2008 state budget. They will now be considered by the Legislative Chamber.

The parameters of the state budget for 2008 will be announced after the approval by the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) of Uzbekistan.

Margilan Mechanical Plant assembles Chinese mini-tractors

28.09.2007 16:34:56

TASHKENT. September 28 (UzA) - Margilon Mehanika Zavodi (Margilan Mechanical Plant) Joint-Stock Company has begun the assembly of agricultural technology using the component parts imported from China. This was made possible thanks to cooperation with the companies Turumtav International and Bayhayhuamin (transliterated). At this time the enterprise is assembling the component parts of the Mar-EM-60 minitractors and motor-mopeds supplied by Chinese partners. The Chairman of the Board Ismoil Kamolov said the mini-tracts and moto-mopeds will be of reasonable price, universal in use and compact, UzA reported.

For more information on Uzbekistan, visit BISNIS online at http://www.bisnis.doc.gov/bisnis/country/Uzbekistan.cfm

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