| May 30, 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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New government decree
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The last bell rang in high schools throughout Uzbekistan. For graduates it was the last bell in school ever. However they may hear bell ring again, if they apply for study at institutes and universities. For some of these high-school graduates it is a dilemma to chose an appropriate university. Some chose a university of their major and interest and others chose a college, because of its prestige. The University of World Economy and Diplomacy is believed to be the most prestigious of all the institutions in Uzbekistan. They have better teachers, they have better facilities and they have enough government support and resources to send their students for training abroad. Earlier this week the Cabinet of Ministers issued a decree "On Measures for the Perfection of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy." The decree cancels payment of tuition in currencies other than Uzbek soum. Henceforward the University will be under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister will become a rector. New academic terms of study are five years for a bachelor's degree and two years for a master's degree.
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International success of Uzbek mountaineers
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May 22 will become a historic day for both Uzbekistan and our mountaineering. Within the last four days eleven of our twelve mountaineers reached the top of Everest, the world's highest peak. An 8,848-meter peak was mastered first by Rustam Rajapov, who raised an Uzbek flag on top of Everest. There is one woman among them. Group leader Oleg Grigoriev and his teammate Andery Fedorov had to delay their mission when there were only four hundred meters to the top. At the height of almost 8,500 meters Oleg and four other mountaineers saw the body of an unconscious American mountaineer, Francis, who had attempted to master Everest with her husband, Sergey Arsentiev. However her husband was lost and the group could find only his icebreaker and a piece of rope. The group captain gave up the idea of continuing climbing and took Francis to the camp to rescue her life with the help of Andrey. Unfortunately Francis didn't survive. Keeping in mind the proverb "better late than never", Andrey and Oleg finished their mission two days later. One person couldn't make it since he became sick. The team from Uzbekistan became the only one to have been successful out of 15 teams from twelve countries, who were on this mission in May. They gave up due to bad weather conditions. President Islam Karimov sent his greetings to the mountaineers saying that the people of Uzbekistan had watched the developments with excitement and a great interest.
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Boris Berezovsky visits Tashkent
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Executive Secretary of the CIS Boris Berezovsky visited Uzbekistan on his tour across Central Asian states. He has visited some of these countries and met with their presidents to hold consultations on reforms in CIS. Mr. Berezovsky said during his trips he learns more about the needs of the Central Asian countries so as to outline common interests and work out a mechanism for their realization on the basis of information obtained during previous visits to European and Caucasian countries of the CIS. At his meeting with President Karimov on Thursday in Tashkent, our president agreed that some reforms should be carried out in CIS. Mr. Berezovsky also met with Uzbek Prime Minister Utkir Sultanov, who is also a chairman of the Council of Prime Ministers of the CIS states.
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U.S. Eximbank Chairman to visit Uzbekistan
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Following the annual session of the Uzbek-American Chamber of Commerce in Washington in May 11-12, Chairman and President of the American Export-Import Bank, James Harmon has arrived in Uzbekistan today. Over the weekend he will visit Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva and will begin his official visit next Monday by holding a number of important meetings with Uzbek government's senior officials including the president. In early May Ex-Im bank's board of director's approved a 215 million-dollar long-term guarantee to finance engineering services and equipment for a polyethylene plant in Shurtan gas fields. Ex-Im Bank guaranteed a loan by Chase Manhattan Bank to finance U.S. exports from four companies to design, build and commission the plant, known as the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex. The total cost of the project is estimated at 762 million U.S. dollars. Since Uzbekistan's independence Ex-Im Bank has financed 800 million U.S. dollars in exports.
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Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Karimov
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On May 29 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a four-hour visit to
Tashkent during a flight home from China. During his meeting with President Karimov
he agreed to send Commerce and Industry Minister Natan Sharansky to Uzbekistan
and to receive President Karimov in Israel this September. Israel's Ambassador
Noah Gal Gendler said that some 120,000 of the 145,000 Jews living in Uzbekistan
had left the country in early 90s, 70,000 of them emigrating to Israel.
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New Ambassadors present their credentials
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On May 27 President Islam Karimov received three new Ambassadors-Designate, who presented their credentials. Haydemaria Hurer is a new Ambassador of Austria to Uzbekistan. Dimitrios Kipreos presented his credentials as an Ambassador of Greece. Ambassador-Designate of Eastern Republic of Uruguay Pedro Dondo Kuadrelli told President Karimov that despite the long distance between Uzbekistan and Uruguay, he would work on the development of bilateral relations.
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Uzbek organizations receive international award
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The two organizations from Uzbekistan have been given a U.S.-E.U. democracy and civil society award. The center for the study of journalistic problems "Ilkhom" in Tashkent and the counseling and crisis center "Sabr" in Samarkand are two of fifty award winners worldwide for the efforts to promote peace, prosperity, democracy, human rights and open, market-oriented economies in Central and Eastern Europe, the Newly Independent States and Mongolia. The winners will be given 20,000 U.S. dollars each. An award ceremony for the winners from Uzbekistan will be held in the first half of June.
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Samarkand airport is almost international
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The first phase of reconstruction at the airport in Samarkand is over. 26 million U.S. dollars were spent to improve the runway, terminal, alarm system and the communication network. Now the Samarkand airport is able to receive Boeings. Calculations show that the number of passengers will increase to 300,000 people annually. The second stage of
the reconstruction is now proceeding, estimated to cost $26m, during which
the air-traffic control center will be re-equipped. It will be finished by the
end of this year, and is being carried out with specialists from Japan,
Germany, France, and Turkey.
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Asian wrestling championship to be held in Tashkent
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Tashkent hosted second annual international wrestling tournament "Independence Cup" this week. Of sixteen weight classes in both freestyle and Greek-Roman wrestling, Uzbek athletes won five of them — in two light, 54 and two heavy-weight, 130 and one 85 kg weight classes. Most of the winners are from Iran, Russia and Georgia, countries with good wrestling history and record. Wrestling has become one of the popular sports in Uzbekistan along with boxing, tennis, taekwondo and soccer. Delegates from the International Wrestling Federation gave high marks to the tournament and announced that the federation had welcomed Uzbekistan Wrestling Association's proposal to hold Asian wrestling championship of 1999 in Uzbekistan.
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