DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN RURAL AREAS

Implementation of the standard design housing construction program in rural areas has been successfully underway in Uzbekistan

This year alone, 13,000 individual residential houses with a total floor area of over 1.82 million square meters will be built on 300 residential areas in 151 rural districts.

The program of construction of affordable housing in rural areas of Uzbekistan was launched in 2009. Over the years, 56,557 individual standard design houses were constructed in 1,167 new residential areas.

Foreign investors have been actively supporting the social project. For example, the Saudi Development Fund has allocated $30 million this year to finance the construction of 668 standard design houses in Karakalpakstan under the loan agreement with the government of Uzbekistan. This is not the first tranche of the Saudi Arabia for housing construction in Uzbekistan. Middle last year, they allocated $30 million for the construction of 959 standard design houses in the Khorezm region.

Two other international financial institutions - the Islamic Development Bank and Asian Development Bank – have also been involved in the loan scheme of standard design construction. ADB has been supporting the housing construction in Uzbekistan since 2012. As part of Multi-Tranche Financing program, ADB has already allocated $492.5 million for the construction of standard design houses.

In 2015, Uzbekistan signed an agreement for $100 million credit lines with the Islamic Development Bank. $79.3 million of funds were channeled to the construction of 1,100 residential houses in Tashkent, Samarkand and Ferghana regions last year. In 2016, it is planned to channel the rest of the funds, or $20.7 million to finance the construction of 315 houses in Tashkent region.

The houses are being built using the domestically produced construction materials. With this purpose, Uzbekistan has established a network of specialized plants for the production of modern building materials for standard design housing construction in rural areas.

To date, there are 12 brickworks with a total annual capacity of 300 million bricks, a manufacture of 1.7 million square meters of metal tile, and a processing plant for 400,000 sq. m. of timber.

The main mission of the abovementioned facilities is to uninterruptedly supply the construction sites with quality and, most importantly, required materials. The standard design construction implies certain size and specific materials, which are not always available in the market. In addition, the domestic manufactures offer significantly cheaper materials, reducing the final cost for the consumer.

To date, the plants have already produced 78 million bricks, 10.5 million square meters of metal tile, and more than 5,000 door and window frames.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)

 

International cooperation

Meeting with the delegation of the CPC Central Committee

On June 7, 2016, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov met with the delegation of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China headed by the Chief of the Division of External Relations Song Tao, who arrived in Uzbekistan.

During the conversation, topical issues of interstate relations, in which the upcoming Uzbek-Chinese high-level contacts in the bilateral format and within the framework of the next meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tashkent should play an important role.

The Ambassador of China Sun Lijie attended the talks.

(Source: Press Service of the MFA of the Republic of Uzbekistan)

 

EDUCATION

Higher Educational Institutions of Uzbekistan Aim at High Quality

Enrollment quotas have not changed: the higher educational institutions will accept 57,907 students for qualifying as Bachelors and 5,000 as Masters similar to last year’s quotas. At the same time the Resolution of the President of Uzbekistan on the enrollment in higher educational institutions in 2016/2017 has given an impetus to yet another stage in the development of the system for training personnel with higher education.

According to results of assessment changes have been introduced into the list of higher education directions and occupations envisaging 18 new directions in training specialists with Bachelors’ degrees, which will enable to fully secure industries’ and economy sectors’ actual needs in personnel with higher education. Their emergence is associated with the renovation of the branches of economy and all spheres of life.

“The enrollment quotas for the 2016/2017 academic year have been formed on the basis of “the need in graduates of higher educational institutions in concrete directions and occupations calculated for the future in chosen professions,” underlined Chief of Directorate of the Ministry of Higher and Special Secondary education Inomjon Majidov. “Calculations of enrollment parameter balance for higher educational institutions and employers’ demand on their graduates have been elaborated with consideration of the analysis of territorial placement of new concrete enterprises, implementation of action programs on structural transformations in the economy, investment projects on modernization and diversification of production and development of road and transport and engineering-communication infrastructure.”

The optimization of the system of training personnel this year affected four leading higher educational institutions of the country: the Tashkent State University of the Uzbek language and Literature was set up. The Resolution on the enrollment specified the destiny of yet another higher educational institution. Enrollment in the Urgench Branch of the Tashkent Medical Academy has been ceased. From now on, the medical personnel for this region will be trained at the larger medical establishments of the country and their branches with more perfect material-technical base and strong faculties.

At the same time the academic process at all the higher educational institutions are awaiting radical transformations. Training plans and curricula will be re-made by the beginning of the next academic year with consideration of the best foreign practices. This work will be done within the framework of close partnership with the leading universities and higher educational institutions of advanced foreign countries of the world.

“It is expected to fully abandon the outdated, outlived approached and methodologies of teaching certain disciplines. New academic plans and curricula based on modern achievements of science and advanced pedagogical technologies are being actively introduced into the system of Bachelors’ and Masters’ education,” says Inomjon Majidov. “This work is planned to be carried out with the involvement of leading foreign scholars and teachers. Moreover, special attention will be attached to fundamental and technical specialities.”

Particular attention will be paid to their mastering foreign languages and application of modern pedagogical, multimedia and information-communication technologies in the training process. Technologies of material stimulation will be widely used for all teachers to the purpose of ensuring their professional growth.

As of July 1, retraining and raising the qualification level of all management, administrative and faculty staff will be organized at 15 qualification improvement centers set up under the higher educational institutions of the country.

The main objective this time is to train the faculty to work with the new training curricula and the new training methodologies. It is planned to widely attract to the program the faculty of leading foreign higher educational institutions.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)