INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

.. 1

Uzbekenergo, South Korean firms ink contract on Talimarjan project. 1

SOCIETY.. 1

Sport has been and will be the crucial prerequisite for fostering a praiseworthy young generation in the country. 1

“ASRLAR SADOSI” FESTIVAL.. 3

Next Echo of Ages due Early May in Navoi’s Sarmishsoy. 3

 

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Uzbekenergo, South Korean firms ink contract on Talimarjan project

Uzbekenergo state joint stock company and consortium of South Korean companies – Daewoo International Corp. and Hyundai Engineering & Construction – signed a contract on modernization of Talimarjan thermal power station in Kashkadarya region.

According to the statement of Hyundai Engineering & Construction, the sum of contract makes up US$819 million.

Under the contract with state-owned power generation company Uzbekenergo, Hyundai E&C will build two 450-megawatt combined cycle power plants in Talimarjan, about 440 kilometers southwest of the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction stated it plans to complete the turnkey project in 37.5 months after work begins.

Uzbekenergo state joint stock company announced a tender on construction of two combined cycle gas turbine units 450 MW each at Talimarjan thermal power station with the starting price of US$893 million. Daewoo International Corp. and Hyundai Engineering & Construction won the tender.

Three more consortiums also participated in tender process. They were Japan’s Mitsui and South Korea’s Samsung, Japan’s Sumitomo and South Korea’s Lotto, as well as France’s Alstom and Spain’s Duro Felguera.

The project cost is US$1.28 billion. The Government of Uzbekistan attracted ADB loan for US$350 million and loan of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) forUS$300 million. The remaining US$630 million will be financed by the government, the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan (US$250 million), and the power utility company.

Within the project, it is also planned to build a 218 km 500 kV single circuit transmission line from Talimarjan TPP to Sogdiana substation. The project with the cost of US$166.8 million will be implemented due to loan of the World Bank for US$110 million and resource of the Uzbek side.

First power block of Talimarjan thermal power station was commissioned in December 2004. The designed capacity of the block is 800 megawatt. The construction cost was US$400 million. (Source:UzDaily.com).

 

SOCIETY

Sport has been and will be the crucial prerequisite for fostering a praiseworthy young generation in the country

The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of Children's Sports Development Fund took place under the chairmanship of President Islam Karimov on March 15 in Tashkent.

Youths are the major wealth of the thirty million multinational country of Uzbekistan. Having gained independence, Uzbekistan designated the care of comprehensive spiritual and physical development of the young people, their provision with good education and broad opportunities for implementation of their potential as the primary objective in line with the concept of nurturing the comprehensively advanced and healthy generation. Well considered reforms on the family, motherhood and childhood, children's sports and education system have yielded tangible outcomes.

"We set a goal to consistently develop children's sports in direct connection with the process of education and training, so we extensively work in this direction," said Islam Karimov in his report at the meeting of the Board of Trustees, and once again reminded that “nurturing of a healthy and comprehensively advanced generation implies building of the state with a great future, and winning a high authority in the world community."

The priority tasks on establishment of healthy lifestyle, protection of children from all kinds of negative impacts, turning children's sport in a truly national and popular movement are addressed by the entire society. Children's Sports Development Fund, which was established by the Decree of the President of Uzbekistan on October 24, 2002, is the key executor of the policy of nurturing a physically healthy and spiritually mature young generation. The structure purposefully works on building and equipping children's sports facilities, provision of children with the opportunities for physical growth and going in for sports everywhere, as well as wide promotion of the advantage of the sport lifestyle among the youth.

“Today,” said the head of state, “the life proves the correctness of the Fund Forum’s concern for the development of children's sports with a focus on rural areas, strengthening of its logistical base, building a network of modern children's sports facilities at schools, equipping them with modern sports tools, as well as ensuring their efficient operation."

As reported, for 10 years the Fund has invested in the construction of 1,113 children's sports facilities, including 252 new sports complexes and 861 gyms in general schools, with 84 percent of them in rural areas. Besides, 262 sports facilities were reconstructed and overhauled. No region left aside the big sports construction. Presently, 81 percent out of 9,600 schools have newly constructed or reconstructed gyms, and all the 1,549 colleges and lyceums have gyms fully equipped with modern sports facilities.

There are impressive changes across the country in terms of creation of opportunities for the mass involvement of children in water sports. In the last five years 14 indoor pools 25x12 meters in size were built in all regions, 13 pools were reequipped, and 83 pools were overhauled. The total number of sports facilities that were once unique for Uzbekistan, has now reached 203, whereby over 13,000 boys and girls across the country constantly attend swimming, synchronized swimming, diving and water polo classes. Meanwhile, stadiums, sports halls, swimming pools and playgrounds, which were specially designed by State Administration for Architecture and Construction of Uzbekistan to modern standard projects, built and equipped, are boosting throughout the republic. They turned into an integral component of both urban and rural infrastructure. Moreover, they truly serve the young Uzbek citizens.

"The most important outcome of our work,” underlined the President, “is undoubtedly that more than 1,800,000 children attend over 57,500 sports clubs today thanks to developed logistical base. As a result, the average daily workload of every sports facility has increased to 9.2 hours." As noted by President, the number of children regularly attending more than 30 kinds of sport has grown by 1.4 times against 2003. During this period, the coverage with physical culture and sports among students has increased from 20.4 to 40.5 percent, including girls from 16.4 to 32.5 percent.

Most importantly, these figures imply the true improvement of children's health. Annual preventive examination among schoolchildren proves that systematic physical training and sports improve the indicators of physical development and health of children. This is observed in all regions of the country. It is typical that over the last decade the share of boys found fit for military service, grew up by 15 percent and reached 82.5 percent in 2012.

The further advancement of sports infrastructure in rural areas and active involvement of girls in regular physical training has been a priority since the very establishment of the Children's Sports Development Fund, which works on the construction of sports facilities, gyms, their repair and equipping with the tools needed, as well as decides on attracting highly qualified teaching and coaching staff, especially women, to the work with children.

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees President Islam Karimov noted that the situation with the development of children's sports in rural areas, where it was completely unsatisfactory in the recent past, has changed dramatically over the years: the level of enrollment in sporting activities over the past decade has grown from 14,5 to 39 percent.

Previously, the state’s leader repeatedly pointed out to the need of particular approach to involving girls in sports, creation of relevant conditions, as they are the future mothers, the support of family and society; they are to instill love for sports in their children. At the meeting he stated: "Huge changes in the involvement of girls in sports are obvious without exaggeration. In 2012 the number of girls attending sports sections grew by 1.6 times, and 1.3 times in rural areas, as compared to 2003. I am pleased to point out to the significant increase of the number of girls in such kinds of sports as gymnastics, swimming, synchronized swimming, tennis, and others."

The impressive figures and the attainments of our pride were listed again. Thus, through the organization of regional territorial federations and gymnastics centers the number of girls involved in this most feminine kind of sports has grown from 1,700 in 2003 to 36,000 in 2012. The young chess player Nafisa Muminova was the first Uzbekistan athlete to get the title of International Grandmaster. Synchronized swimmers Shohida Zohidova, Sevara Babakulova, and Gulsanam Yuldasheva won silver medals at the Asian Championship in Indonesia. The synchronized swimmer Shohida Zohidova and the aikido admirer Sarvinoz Shaydullaeva were awarded the Zulfiya State Award for high attainments.

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees the head of the state outlined a range of the tasks to be in the Fund’s focus. They include equipping of children's sports facilities primarily with the domestically produced equipment, maximal employment of sports facilities, attraction of highly qualified teaching and coaching staff, with a priority to women. Still, promotion of children's interest in sports remains the main concern. This can be achieved through the arrangement of regular sporting events in various kinds of sports, competitions, sports festivals, friendly matches and training camps across the country. Traditional competitions Umid Nihollari, Barkamol Avlod and Student Games are of special value in this context. They do not just promote sports, but greatly contribute to the formation of national teams.

"I consider our children as worthy representatives of the million-strong youth of Uzbekistan as they achieve high results in the sports arena,” said the President. “Such boys and girls are a symbol of a healthy and harmoniously developed generation, an example for thousands of their peers and a motivation for high achievements. This proves once again that our people will never yield to anyone in an increasingly growing competition." (Source: Uzbekistan Today Newspaper).

 

“ASRLAR SADOSI” FESTIVAL

Next Echo of Ages due Early May in Navoi’s Sarmishsoy

The sixth Asrlar Sadosi (Echo of Ages) Festival of Traditional Culture is due May 4-5 in one of the major natural galleries of Uzbekistan’s prehistoric art, namely the Sarmishsoy Hole in Navoi region. The Fund Forum and the UNESCO Office in Uzbekistan are organizers of the Asrlar Sadosi Festival. 

Participants and guests of the Asrlar Sadosi 2013 are to have a unique opportunity to familiarize with the ancient landmark Sarmishsoy. This is an exclusive historical monument – famous petroglyphs in the gorge, preserving thousands of rock paintings, as well as other archeological monuments. Nowadays, there have been discovered more than ten thousand paintings in the gorge and its nearby areas.

In Sarmishsoy there is also group of paintings that concerns to the later periods, the early and late medieval. Along with various paintings and geometric forms in rock paintings of Sarmishsoy, there are several sayings, scripted in Arabic calligraphy and Cyrillic. 

The archeological landscape of the gorge is kept the traces of active usage of this territory during several millennia. (Source: Uzbekistan Today Newspaper).