Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan: New horizons of partnership

Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan: New horizons of partnership President of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambaev arrived in Samarkand on 24 December with a working visit.

The Uzbek and Kyrgyz people are close neighbours, who have lived throughout ages side by side in peace and accord. Our nations share united history, common cultural and religious values, similar traditions and customs.

In the years of independence Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have carried on developing a traditional cooperation. In recent years the bilateral exchanges have significantly accelerated. The telephone conversations of the heads of state took place, the exchange of delegations at the level of governments and regions were carried out. The public of the two countries have positively assessed the reciprocal visits of the delegations to Andijan and Osh cities.

The representatives of the two countries participated in the observation missions at the elections in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambaev visited the burial place of First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov at the Khazrati Khizr complex and paid a tribute of respect to his bright memory.

Later, the Presidents visited the “JV MAN Auto Uzbekistan” Uzbek-German joint venture.

The high-level guest learned about the production capacity of the joint venture and the conditions, established here. During the years of independence, Uzbekistan has entered the rank of leading car manufacturers. Today the products of the Uzbek auto industry enjoy a huge demand in many countries, including Kyrgyzstan.

Establishment of JV MAN Auto Uzbekistan company laid a foundation in the new phase of developing domestic auto manufacturing. In accordance with the resolution of First President Islam Karimov “On measures to further develop production of heavy duty trucks” on 16 February 2011, a complex on manufacturing and servicing MAN heavy duty trucks have been constructed in Uzbekistan.

Modern trucks with carrying capacity from 15 to 50 tons are manufactured here, including auto cranes, flatbed machines, isometric vans, water carriers, combined road, channels machines, concrete mixers, machines for transportation of cotton and waste.

Mechanical engineers and technicians on technical maintenance of trucks are trained at the Training centre, organized in the territory of the plant.

On the basis of "MAN ProfiDrive" special training courses, drivers of heavy-duty trucks are trained in safe and effective operating of the machinery. Training drivers in this system allows to save fuel by 20-30%, reduce wear and tear, safely operate trucks.

The President of the Kyrgyz Republic highly evaluated the activity of the company, equipped by modern standards and with latest technologies, which has turned into one of the success stories of the auto industry of our country.

Almazbek Atambaev acquainted with modern cars, trucks, tractors and other agricultural machinery, manufactured in Uzbekistan.

The negotiations between President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambaev took place at the “Forumlar majmuasi” Palace.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed gratitude to Almazbek Atambaev for sincere condolences regarding the death of the First President of Uzbekistan and paying a tribute of respect to the memory of Islam Karimov, which is a high symbol of respect to the peoples of Uzbekistan.

It was underlined that the visit of Almazbek Atambaev demonstrates that Kyrgyzstan attaches an important significance to developing relations with Uzbekistan.

The President of Kyrgyzstan once again congratulated Shavkat Mirziyoyev with a confident victory in the elections for the post of the President of Uzbekistan.

The Heads of state discussed the issues of further developing the political dialogue and enhancing economic relations, exchanged opinions on several problems of regional and international nature.

The parties focused on the problem of “creeping expansion” of extremism and religious radicalism in the region. It was highlighted that it is necessary to consolidate interactions in the security sphere in order to counter such threats and challenges.

While discussing the issues of resolution of the situation in Afghanistan, the parties noted that achieving peace and stability in this country is a vitally important condition for ensuring security of the whole region, implementing prospective and demanded transport-communications projects and achieving further economic development.

The Heads of state expressed firm willingness to maintain the course of strengthening the policy of good-neighbourliness and mutually beneficial cooperation, to enrich the Uzbek-Kyrgyz relations with qualitatively new contents.

The parties expressed a confidence that the program of cooperation between the foreign ministries of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan for 2016-2017 will serve to form a new platform for the political dialogue.

The trade-economic cooperation is an important sphere of inter-governmental relations. As noted during discussions on this topic, despite 23% growth in the past period of this year, the indicators of mutual trade turnover remain low and do not correspond to the real capacities of the two countries.

The Presidents underlined the need to jointly adopt measures on cardinal increase of the assortment and the volume of mutual trade to 500 million US dollars in the next two years.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that in this regard it is necessary to organize a systemic supply to Kyrgyzstan of modern agricultural machinery, cars and trucks, buses, manufactured in Uzbekistan, to be filled with service facilities.

The Kyrgyz partners were also presented the opportunities to supply ammonium nitrate, phosphorus, potash and NPK fertilizers, electro-technical products- from transformers to all kinds of cable and wire products and home appliances, as well as finished textiles, construction materials, medicines, furniture and educational-laboratory equipment, other industrial products.

In its turn, the Kyrgyz side may reconsider the assortment and organized supplies of demanded products to Uzbekistan.

In this regard the need to establish a long-term direct cooperation between corresponding institutions of the two countries was underscored.

Development of effective transport corridors in the region is a strategic area of the economic cooperation. Construction of the shortest railway rote, linking Central Asia with China through the territory of Kyrgyzstan, allows to significantly increase the transit potential of not only the two countries, but also the whole region.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev underlined that specialists of Uzbekistan are ready to take part in designing and constructing the parts of the corridor in the territory of Kyrgyzstan.

The cultural-humanitarian cooperation is also one of the main components of the bilateral relations.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Almazbek Atambaev expressed a certainty that the agreements, reached during the negotiations, will elevate the relations to a qualitatively new level, serve to open new pages of the mutually beneficial cooperation.

 (Source: UzA)

President of Uzbekistan received foreign minister of Kazakhstan

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev received Minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov on 23 December.

The Head of our state, warmly greeting the guest, once again conveyed congratulations to the leadership and the brotherly nation of Kazakhstan with a significant date- the 25th anniversary of the state independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

It was underlined that the trustworthy and rich in content Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan dialogue, established at present, corresponds to the long-term interests of the brotherly nations, is based on deep historical roots and is dynamically developing practically in all areas of the bilateral interaction.

Thanking for a warm reception, the head of Kazakh foreign ministry delivered the sincere greetings and respect of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to the President and the people of Uzbekistan.

Erlan Idrissov once again congratulated the President of Uzbekistan with a confident victory in the recent presidential elections.

It was also underscored during the meeting that our countries, as close neighbours and time-tested partners, are equally interested in the security and stability, sustainable economic and social development and prosperity of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Central Asian region as a whole.

In this regard, the election of Kazakhstan to non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, assertively supported by Uzbekistan, opens new opportunities to promote the interests of the Central Asian countries on a global level.

During the conversation, the parties exchanged views on all issues of the Uzbek-Kazakh agenda, first of all, in trade-economic, investment, transport-communications spheres. In particular, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as the largest trade partners in the region, are ready to deepen and widen relations in this sphere, utilize all available reserves.

Expressing satisfaction with the attained level of multifaceted interaction in bilateral and multilateral formats, active exchange between the governments, companies and regions of the two countries, the parties confirmed their endeavour to further strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in the spirit of intergovernmental Treaties on eternal friendship and strategic partnership.

The sides also exchanged opinions on topical regional and international issues.

(Source: Press-service of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan)

The National aircompany Uzbekistan Airways

The domestic civil aviation has scheduled several large-scale projects for the coming years

The construction of a new terminal at the Tashkent international airport has been in progress.  Specialists are currently working on integrated measures for the follow-up development and upgrade of engineering and communication infrastructure of regional air harbors, stuffing them with the latest technologies.

In the years of independence, Uzbekistan has been building the aviation infrastructure almost from scratch. The craft fleet was not small in the early 90s of the last century, but they virtually exhausted their resources. The fleet consisted mainly of old AN-24 and YAK-40, which were designed exclusively for domestic flights.

In the first years of independence, the republic identified strategic directions for the development of civil aviation, attaching primary importance to the renewal of the fleet in accordance with the requirements of the time, radical reconstruction of airports, and reformation of air traffic management systems.

NAC Uzbekistan Airways has completely renewed its fleet during the years of independence. Today, it operates the latest models of passenger aircraft produced by the world's leading manufacturers specifically for Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government has helped to purchase Boeing-787-8 Dreamliner, Boeing-757, Boeing-764, A-310, and others. The platform for training highly qualified pilots and technical staff was established on the basis of international standards and advanced technologies.

The well-considered and long-term development strategy for aviation has helped the national air carrier to take a rightful place in international air transportation and maintenance. Today, the airline performs flights to more than 40 cities throughout the world. Central Asia’s only Maintenance Center for Aircraft Engineering of the latest generation under Uzbekistan Airways provides services to domestic and many foreign companies.

International aviation authorities repeatedly awarded NAC Uzbekistan Airways for flight safety on several occasions, quality, aircraft maintenance with the use of the latest technologies, training of qualified staff.

Loads of funds have been invested in the modernization of air transport infrastructure. 11 airports in Tashkent, Nukus, Samarkand, Bukhara, Urgench, Termez, Karshi, Namangan, Andijan, Ferghana and Navoi have been completely revamped in strict compliance with international standards. The Tashkent airport is now the largest in Central Asia. Every year, it receives and sends nearly 3 million passengers in 11 domestic and 38 international destinations.

Established in partnership with Korean Air, the aviation hub and multimodal logistics center at Navoi international airport is another milestone. The air harbor is the largest cargo center that provides the whole range of logistic services for other transportation means. Equipped with modern air navigation devices, the international intermodal logistics center receives different types of aircrafts in any weather conditions.

It connects Uzbekistan with Brussels, Zaragoza, Milan, Shanghai, Vienna, Frankfurt-am-Mein, Bangkok, New Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka, Istanbul, Doha and Dubai.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)

Great names of Uzbekistan

Guiding Star on the Literary Horizon

In one of his poems, the national poet, Hero of Uzbekistan Erkin Vohidov wrote that his creative work originates from the people, and is created for the people. Indeed, his verses reflect the everyday reality of the folk life in Uzbekistan. Today, festive events are taking place throughout the country to mark the 80th anniversary of the people’s favorite.

Erkin Vohidov began writing poetry while still in school. After getting the higher philological education at the Tashkent State University (now the National University), he worked for many years in publishing houses and editorial offices of newspapers and magazines. He was not only a writer, but also a translator, the public figure and statesman, a wonderful husband and father. The poet died several months before his jubilee. He died at the end of May this year, and on December 28 he would turn 80.

“The first collection of poems, which was released in 1961, wore a symbolic name ‘Tong Nafasi’ (Breath of Dawn). In those years, the literature experienced not the best of times, and the book of Erkin Vohidov became breath of fresh air. He was a versatile poet. Gazelles from his book ‘Yoshlik Devoni’ (The Youth Collection) are still performed as songs. He also wrote poems. For example, his ‘Poem written in a tent’ is dedicated to the courage, diligence of people affected by the earthquake in Tashkent in 1966. In addition, even today the theaters stage plays based on the dramatic pieces of Erkin Vohidov. Another great legacy the poet left is his literary translations. For example, Sergei Yesenin’s poems he translated as if they were written in the Uzbek language. Of course, one of the most significant translations was Goethe’s ‘Faust’, on which he worked for about five years. He was loved by the people, actively participated in the public life of the country. For many years he served as a legislator, then senator of the Oliy Majlis,” chairman of the Union of Writers of Uzbekistan, People’s Writer Muhammad Ali said. “I was lucky enough to work with the poet in the Ghafur Ghulom Publishing House of Literature and Art, where he headed the poetry department. While working on the release of books, manuscript editing, communicating with authors, I learned a lot of secrets of the profession that I discovered thanks to the advice and assistance of the mentor. Erkin Vohidov was very sociable and cheerful person. He told lots of funny stories, including those from the field of literature. He even wrote a series of satirical poems ‘Donishqishloq Latifalari’ (Funny Stories of Donishkishlak). It was always a joy and fun anywhere the poet appeared.”

Selected works of the poet will be published along with translations of his works into English and Karakalpak languages. In addition, it is planned to publish the memoirs of Rahmatulla Inogamov ‘Shoirlik Qismati’ (The Destiny of Being Poet).

The educational and cultural institutions of the country these days hold the celebrations devoted to the 80th anniversary of Erkin Vohidov. The Alisher Navoi Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature has held a scientific conference on the theme “The role and significance of creativity of Erkin Vohidov in the spiritual life of our people”, within which the presentations were made by well-known scientists and writers of the country.

The main celebrations will undoubtedly be held on his birthday - December 28. This day a memorial plaque will be installed in the house in Tashkent, where the poet lived. The Uzbek National Academic Drama Theater will host a grand memorial evening. The same concert will be held in Ferghana region, where Erkin Vohidov born. The workers of culture from all over Uzbekistan will gather in the small motherland of the poet.

In addition, a documentary about the life and creativity of the poet is being shot now, as well as a monument will be created and installed.

In 1964, in one of his poems, Erkin Vohidov wrote that the stars, which the author put instead of the title, will shine even after his star goes off. His works have become a guiding star for many on the vast horizons of life.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)