Acting President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the Republic of Karakalpakstan and Khorezm region on 28 September 2016

Large scale projects, commenced in the years of independence under the leadership of the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, are steadily continuing in the regions. Thanks to huge creative works, the appearance of cities and villages have cardinally transformed, the economic potential has grown significantly, the welfare of the population has increased, and all these achievements can be vividly seen in the example of the northern region of Uzbekistan.

Acting President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the Republic of Karakalpakstan and Khorezm region on 28 September 2016 to review the pace of social-economic reforms, wide-scale works in industry, agriculture and a social sphere.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the Takhiatash thermal power station, where he surveyed the implementation of a large-scale investment project in accordance with the resolution of the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov “On measures to implement investment project “Construction of two steam-gas plants with a capacity of 230-280 MW at the Takhiatash thermal power station”, issued on 18 June 2015.

This thermal power station, consisting of five power blocks with a total capacity of 730 MW, is a main source of electricity for consumers in the Republic of Karakalpakstan and Khorezm region. The station annually produces 3,2 bln. KW/hours of electric power, for which purpose 1,15 bln. cubic meters of natural gas is burned.

The implementation of the new investment project allows saving significant volumes of natural gas, but also increasing the production of electricity, the demand for which has been growing steadily. In particular, the consumption will be lowered by 488 mln. cubic meters of natural gas while the power generation capacity will increase by 230-280 MW.

After completion of planned works, the total capacity of the Takhiatash station will increase by 930 MW, while the annual production will exceed 3,3 bln. KW/h.

Afterwards, Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed the general plan of Nukus city. During the conversation, a special attention was paid to the issues of building modern high-rise residential houses, recreation places, artificial lakes and ponds. Further widening the scope of works on creating worthy conditions for comfortable life of people should be on the spotlight.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev also inspected cotton fields, talked to farmers of Kegeyli district.

A meeting with representatives of the Republic of Karakalpakstan was held, at the start of which the participants paid a tribute to the memory of the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.

Wide-scale reforms, carried out in the years of independence under the leadership of the First President, in this region of our country, were underlined at the meeting. The special attention to social-economic development, increasing the welfare of population in the Aral Sea region has been yielding high results.

The tasks on increasing the export potential of the region, organization of cotton harvesting and sowing of winter crops, preparing social facilities and residential houses for the autumn-winter season were discussed at the meeting.

The issues of constructing accessible housing, further improving the activity of communal services, carrying out beautification and greenery works were also considered.

On the same day, Acting President of our country visited Khorezm region.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev evaluated the projects of high-rise residential houses, construction of which are planned in the next few years in Urgench. The issues of building accessible housing for low-income families in rural areas were considered.

In Kushkipir district of the region Shavkat Mirziyoyev assessed the agricultural works, discussed the issues of raising productivity of lands, rational utilization of water resources with farmers.

The meeting with representatives of the Khorezm region started with a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.

The issues of a social-economic development of the region, increasing its export potential, organization of new prospective industrial enterprises, further improving of social infrastructure were discussed at the meeting.

A special attention was paid to the practical issues of preparing agricultural products, preparing the residential houses and institutions of the social sphere to autumn-winter season, ensuring smooth operation of the industry and other spheres of region’s economy.

(Source: UzA)

ENERGETICS

The implementation of a project on introduction of the automated control and energy accounting system has been in progress in Uzbekistan

The system is currently introduced in Bukhara, Jizzakh and Samarkand regions. Uzbekistan signed a contract for its establishment with the South Korean company KT Corporation as a result of international tendering.

According to the project manager Inh Ki Kim, it is very important in terms of development and promotion of technologies of intelligent electrical networks in Uzbekistan. That will provide an opportunity of introducing specific tariffs based on a day time. The multi-tariff accounting should enable Uzbekenergo to regulate the consumption of electricity during the day, while smoothing the load chart.

Works on the installation of server equipment and meters are currently underway in the pilot areas. Uzbekenergo is planning to install more than one million multipurpose meters at a voltage of 0.4 kV in household, commercial and industrial customers in three regions by the end of 2017.

According to experts, the metering should facilitate timely, accurate and transparent calculations, improve quality of customer service, ensure prompt response to failures and address many other issues.

In the next few years, Uzbekistan has scheduled to install 6 million up-to-date meters throughout the country, as well as create a unified billing system and a consumer data base through the loan funds of the Asian, World and the Islamic Development Banks. The total cost of the project exceeds $800 million.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)

International relations

Condolences to Heads of Israel

The Acting President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed sincere condolences to the Heads of the State of Israel – to the President Reuven Rivlin and to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to the death of prominent Israeli statesman and public figure, former President Shimon Peres and he conveyed the words of sympathy and support to his families and relatives.

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

On October 1, Uzbekistan celebrates Teacher’s Day

Laying the Groundwork for the Future

The National Program for Personnel Training adopted 19 years ago and large-scale work carried out in this sphere have radically changed not only the system of education and upbringing but also the entire life of our society and laid down the foundation, in a positive sense, of an “explosion effect”.

A Unique System

For almost five years already graduates of the ninth form have been continuing their education at professional colleges and academic lyceums. What is noteworthy is that almost 10% of graduates of secondary special and professional institutions enroll to higher educational institutions annually.

Millions of children today get education and are brought up at newly built and overhauled educational establishments – at almost 10,000 schools, 1,556 lyceums and colleges and more than 70 higher educational institutions. Based on the new educational system they master modern professions and thanks to it find a worthy place in life, thus vividly manifesting the efficiency of educational model of Uzbekistan and its competitiveness on the international arena.

The national model of education is unique in that it provides an opportunity for everyone to get a professional education. Time will pass and a unique situation will take shape in Uzbekistan’s labor market, when everyone will become a professional specialist.

At the initial stage of the implementation of the National Program for Personnel Training it was necessary to build, renovate and furnish the required number of schools, professional colleges and academic lyceums in order to ensure the functioning of a compulsory 12-year educational system guaranteed by the government. The state, the principal reformer on the issues of improving the system of education – continuous perfection of the quality of education, modernization of the educational process for training specialists meeting the demand of the labor market – faces new tasks today.  

New mechanisms have been launched today headed by special funds under the Ministry of Finance, which secure the consolidation of the material-technical bases of educational institutions at all levels. A particularly important place in this process belongs to the solution of problems related to raising the teachers’ qualification level, since only those teachers and mentors , who continuously strive for self-improvement, are able to raise the level of their knowledge and qualification, feel the heartbeat of the time and capable to bring up comprehensively developed and mature personalities.

The system of re-training and qualification improvement of teachers and the faculty of all educational institutions has been revised in recent years. They are provided with additional conditions for mastering computer technologies and foreign languages. The methodological support of the educational process has been raised to a qualitatively new level. For example, methodical guidelines for teachers have been printed out at schools as supplements to text books.

Improvement of the system of studying foreign languages and information-communication technologies has turned into the main direction in the activity of the entire educational system, so that every graduate complied with the requirements of the time, become a qualified specialist, mastered a foreign language and improved his/her computer skills.

Education from the Cradle

Special attention is paid to pre-school education. ‘The Concept of Pre-School education in the Republic of Uzbekistan’ was adopted in 2008, and it reflects the founding factors, goals and objectives of renovating this sphere of activity: shaping of a child as a personality is a priority task among them all.

Systemic and stage-by-stage activities on the construction and reconstruction of kindergartens, their provision with didactic materials, toys and sports inventory have been put on rail for its implementation. They are financed on account of the State and local budgets. For instance, 3 billion soums were allocated annually in 2010-2015 for fitting out 4916 establishments where about 668,000 boys and girls were trained. Non-governmental kindergartens, the number of which reached 132, have started their operation; they are attended by nearly 4,500 children.

Children of pre-school age enjoy the services of free calisthenics, chess and other circles, the circles of foreign languages, early professional orientation, and much more. They study the national cultural heritage and traditions in the offices of spirituality, libraries and museums under the kindergartens. 

The number of educators with a higher education alone increased almost threefold from 2011 till 2016. A system of continuous qualification improvement and introduction of the modern methods of work have been set up for them.

Groups of short-term pre-school detention were set up two years ago for creation of conveniences for young families and expanding the coverage of children with non-formal education. Experienced pedagogues help children to get prepared for school. More than 53,000 children currently attend 2,000 such groups.

Five illustrated manuals on the “Bolajon” support program have been published for parents of children who do not attend kindergartens. They will help hundreds of thousands of families to develop their five or six year old sons and daughters speaking, math and other skills. All this will help bring up the pre-school training of the younger generation to a qualitatively new level.

School Education

Schools were built and overhauled in 1991-2003 in all the regions of the country, which are attended by 1,893 thousand schoolchildren, and kindergartens for 152,800 places. Then, in 2004-2009, followed the implementation of the nationwide State program of development of school education. 351 new school buildings were erected, 2,470 - renovated, 3,608 - repaired, 2,069 - refurbished. From 2010 to the present day the renovation has affected 2,226 schools. Overall, 2.9 trillion soums (currency rates of CB RU from 30.09.2016, 1$= 3010.20 soums) have been allocated for these purposes.

Another 1.9 trillion soums was channeled into the consolidation of the material-technical base, fitting out each and every institution with laboratory equipment and technology. As a result increased the level of equipment of classes with necessary facilities, and physics, chemistry, and biology offices were fitted out with laboratory equipment; thus the equipment level reached 78-88% on the average compared with 2004. Another example: at the time 14% of schools possessed computers, now this indicator is equal to 81.5% and the number continues to grow.

The content of the training programs has also changed. This was preceded by a tremendous work with the involvement of leading educators and researchers. Back in 1999, Uzbekistan was one of the first among CIS countries, which introduced new state educational standards. Much has been done to ensure interconnection of the curricula at schools, colleges and lyceums with consideration of the specific subjects’ significance, age and psycho-physiological characteristics of children. New projects on state educational standards and programs on 18 academic disciplines have been recently elaborated and launched within the framework of their further modernization. They are now being tested at institutions of general and specialized secondary and vocational education.

Changes have been reflected in the new generation of text-books, to publication of which the government pays special attention. In 1991, the level of availability of text-books made up 55.4%, while today it has grown up to 100%. 234.2 billion soums has been allocated for publication of millions of books of 1,958 titles in recent five years alone. These include seven methodical aids with multimedia applications with the help of which the primary school teachers will be able to more actively apply advanced pedagogical and information technologies. More than 500 electronic books, video and audio lessons, interactive animation and virtual labs, tests, and educational games were worked out and introduced into the school curricula and more than three dozens of IT systems and services had also been put into practice and already proved their effectiveness.

The successful reforms have helped to noticeably raise the recognition of the pedagogues’ profession. The Day of Teachers and Mentors was instituted at the proposal of the first President of Uzbekistan, the system of payment for their work was improved, and various contests and reviewes organized on a regular basis. The share of teachers with the higher education has grown up from 68.4% up to 81.7% during the last twelve years.

Country of Talent

Identification and comprehensive development of talent is a priority direction of development for the government. This tendency is promoted by the activities of numerous establishments of supplementary education. To be more specific, the government had implemented the State program for consolidation of material-technical basis and further improvement of the activities of children’s Schools of music and Arts for the years 2009-2014, while currently it realizes the Stat Program on the further improvement of the activities of children’s Schools of music and arts for the years 2016-2020. Up until now the capital renovation project has touched upon 301 specialized institutions, as well as three academic lyceums. For example, eight years ago almost half of schools were housed in old premises and now they are accommodated in modern buildings. They received modern equipment, furniture and special technology, 48 types of aids, music collections, and disks with the works of domestic and foreign composers, as well as visual materials. Thanks to newly created conditions the number of children attending the Schools of music and arts, has grown more than one a half times over since 2008.

A new network of “Barkamol avlod” children’s centers network has taken shape during this period. There are 211 modern establishments operating in the country with 5 thousand circles specializing in the arts and technical creativity, ecology and regional studies. They are attended by almost 114,000 boys and girls, and another 3 million children attend 150,000 circles operating under their schools.

The activity of the Children’s Sports Development Fund, established on the initiative of the first President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, serves the cause of disseminating the active way of life. Prior to the country’s acquisition of its independence the specialized facilities within the system of public education could be counted on the fingers of one hand, while currently their number stands at 2,178. A unified system of a three-stage “Umid nihollari”, “Barkamol avlod” and “Universiade” mass competitions have been set up in the country, which attracted the attention of many foreign specialists. As a result, the number of young athletes during the period from 2003 and 2016 has increased from 20.4% up to 57.2% of the total number of children. Moreover, the number of girls athletes has grown up from 16.4% up to 46.9%.

All this contributes to the fact that our children more and more loudly declare about themselves on the international arena. Less than one month ago the national team of our country won the second place at the International mathematics contest in Thailand. Pupils of the seventh form Eldor Neimatov and Shakhboz Khasanov from Bukhara and Qashqadaryo regions joined the ranks of the contest laureates. This current year has been no less productive. Our school children won two bronze medals, two certificates of honor and the TIMC Cup at the Thailand International Mathematics Competition. The young residents of the capital city Javokhir and Islombek Sinarovs won gold and bronze medals at the 10th World championship among school children in Brazil. This year they have been recognized as the absolute leaders in their respective age groups at the Uzbekistan championship. Izzatilla Toshkenboyev, Mukhlisa Alisherova and our other young talent won three first places, four – second places and two third places at the prestigious 13th “Citta di Barletta” international musical contest and the 26th World contest of “Citta di Barletta” contest. There are dozens of other children, who worthily represent Uzbekistan at the most authoritative competitions. 

Students of secondary special and professional institutions demonstrate no less significant results. Our representatives came back from the International Olympiad in chemistry with one silver and two bronze medals; and with one bronze medal from the International Olympiad in mathematics, and proclaimed themselves as worthy contesters at international Olympiads in physics, informatics and biology.

Profession for Everyone

About 300 institutions of secondary special and professional education have undergone overhaul and reconstruction in a planned manner completed by the beginning of the new academic year. Quality of training is also undergoing a radical change. A large-scale work on the introduction of advanced pedagogical technologies facilitates in students the development of skills in conducting independent research activities.

Priority is given to training workshops. Work on their construction and fitting them out with equipment has practically been completed. In the past, they had no adequate conditions for inculcating practical skills in students. Modern training workshops are fitted out with the latest production-educational equipment. Production of goods and provision of services to the population have been organized at many colleges’ workshop facilities with the objective of improving the training of specialists.

The status of vocational training foremen has been brought up to a significant level. Their salaries today are raised to the level of teachers. These measures have been undertaken so that foremen of production education, who do not have pedagogical education, could go though relevant training. This allowed improving several fold the quality of conducting lessons in educational workshops.

Also has been resolved the issue of the workshop software consumables.

At the Highest Level

The Program of modernization of material-technical base of higher educational institutions and radical improvement of the quality of training specialists for 2011-2016 was approved five years ago. It had turned into an important document, which specified the ways for further realization of the National Program in training personnel.

The volumes of construction and overhaul work had been significantly expanded. Initially it was planned to reconstruct and overhaul 11 higher educational institutions on account of the Fund for development of material-technical base of universities. However, after the adoption of the Program on the improvement of the system of studying foreign languages the list was replenished with the Uzbek State University of World Languages. After setting up the Tashkent State Dental Institute the construction of new facilities for the new higher educational institution had also been turned into one of the Fund’s tasks.

Great attention in the realization of the Program was attached to further consolidation of the material-technical base of educational laboratories, creation of scientific-research labs and integration of education, science and practice. Moreover, a teacher had always remained in the focus of attention.

The system of re-training and raising the qualification level of teachers on the basis of foreign specialists’ experiences was revised with the objective to raise the level of higher education to the level of leading foreign universities and institutes. Training plans and programs in priority directions for re-training and qualification improvement of management, administrative and pedagogical personnel were elaborated jointly with those specialists. 15 teachers from the Republic of Korea, Italy, Austria, Japan, USA, Spain, France and other countries were invited to the positions of deputy directors of the Branch Centers under the higher educational institutions.

Scientific Approach

Transition to a one-stage system of training highly qualified personnel promoted the consolidation of the role of post graduates (Masters) in training scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel. It predetermined the introduction of additional complex of measures on the further improvement of post-graduate courses’ curricular and approaches to training, which had taken shape as an important stage for preparing the youth to conduct scientific research work.

The competitive selection of those willing to continue their education at the institute of senior fellow-researchers and applicants for a PhD was revised. Today matters not only future scientists’ knowledge, but also their overall outlook, knowledge of history and knowledge of foreign languages.

Training at the post graduate courses and at the institutes of senior fellow-researchers is fully directed at preparing the youths and girls for carrying out scientific-pedagogical activities. The load on post-graduate courses faculty was reduced and the students were provided access to the best laboratories for conducting independent research work. And starting from the last year the Committee on Coordination and Development of Science had even begun to award grants to senior research personnel of Regional Centers for training highly qualified personnel so that they could conduct research work at the leading laboratories of the country.

This has not been done by accident, since today, before defending their doctoral dissertations the post graduates should present the Commission the written evidence on the implementation of a scientific development into practice. And the newly created conditions enable the future young scientists to focus on and prepare competitive research paperes.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)

EDUCATION

The issue of personnel training put high on the agenda

25 years ago, Uzbekistan has selected an independent road of development and launched a whole series of up-to-date reforms and socio-economic reorganization processes, while strictly observing the national interests, requirements, mentality, customs and traditions of the Republic’s population. The former principles and methods of economic management, which failed to prove their value, have undergone root-and-branch changes.

“In order to efficiently operate in today’s market environment, well-trained, high-calibre specialists are needed, who are good at orientating themselves in market relationships as well as at implementing the national economic policy” – this idea was emphasized in the Uzbek leader’s book “Uzbekistan on the Threshold of Independence”. – “We need a mechanism to cherry-pick and stimulate gifted young people…The indigenous higher educational establishments should train specialists in such areas as international economic relations, international marketing, currency-related issues, foreign economic activity and management”.

Personnel, especially their young and talented representatives, constitute not only the basic and invaluable capital of society, but also the latter’s bearing. In the Uzbek leader’s words, whatever tasks and problems we have to tackle finally turn on personnel. That’s why the formation of the country’s personnel potential is viewed as one of the priority objectives that are put high on the economic agenda. This objective is addressed in conformity with the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan, “On education” and the National Program of Personnel Training. Both documents are fundamental, specifying the main types of education in the country:

Pre-school education;

 General secondary education;

Specialized (vocational) secondary education;

Higher education;

Extra-mural education;

Raising the level of professional skills and re-training of personnel;

Educational activities in out-of-school hours.

The approval and successful realization of this Program has ensured the fundamental transformation of national education, with its complete liberalization of former dogmata and ideologies. In terms of its significance, the personnel training system has been lifted to the level of the world’s developed states, meeting all the requirements of high professionalism, morality, spirituality, culture etc. And above all, domestic specialists have no longer been trained on a gross basis, i.e. the greater the number of trained specialists, the better it is for the national economy. The new system of personnel training takes into consideration the interests and needs of the market economy. Both the balanced calculations of parameters for admittance to higher educational establishments and employer demand for their graduates are accomplished on the basis of the Uzbek economy’s actual provision with university-degree specialists, as required by the Presidential Decree, “On measures to further improve the mechanism designed to form parameters of admittance to the Republic’s higher educational establishments”. It is proceeding from these calculations that the government determines appropriate admittance quotas for bachelors and masters. For instance, a quota for the 2016-2017 academic year is fixed at almost 58,000 bachelors and 5,000 masters.

To train specialists for the Uzbek economy, the indigenous institutes of higher education these days have everything at their disposal - from all sorts of modern textbooks, educational supplies, visual aids and curricula to classrooms outfitted with computers, excellently equipped laboratories, libraries, sports grounds and gymnasia etc. The Tashkent State University, as one example, which is considered to be a forge of economic experts in the Republic, is home to a number of centers – for information-resource, information technology, economic research, creative initiatives and many others. Students are trained in keeping with the state educational standards, which represent a system of major parameters that measure the highest levels of education and professional qualification. The educational standards under discussion make it possible to maintain their stability, reproduction and perfection in correspondence with today’s requirements and the prospects of the nation’s socio-economic development at large.          

For the time being, the Uzbek economy needs not just lots of personnel, but highly qualified specialists, who are capable of applying in practice their knowledge obtained at institutes of higher education as well as of solving a variety of production and economic tasks in the most efficient manner. Newly-graduated economists are required to have a good command of economic foundations of production, engineering and technology, while young engineers should know the basic principles of economy. Training such versatile high-calibre cadres allows the indigenous higher educational establishments to ensure that their graduates will get prestigious jobs, because their knowledge will be much in demand, both countrywide and abroad.

As numerous observations and careful analysis show, there are no students who don’t want to become good specialists, to make their career and to occupy a deserved place in society. But in practice, just a desire is not enough to achieve all these purposes. And here, much depends not on a student himself, although it is priority thing, but also on those who teach them, i.e. the professor-teaching staff. The latter should not only deliver instructive lectures and conduct interesting seminars and laboratory works. They must also impart practical and business skills to their students, as well as cultivate in them such features and qualities as personal responsibility, patriotism and cultural, political and national values. It is common knowledge that enterprises using obsolete equipment and technology cannot turn out high quality competitive produce. The same is true for education and personnel training. For lecturers to be generally sought after, they should not rest on their former laurels. Rather, they must constantly work hard, honing their theoretical and practical skills and perfecting their pedagogic mastery. The following Presidential Decrees also accentuate this requirement: “On the further improvement of the training and attestation system for research and research-pedagogical personnel of higher qualification” and “On measures to further improve the system of retraining and upgrade training for administrative and pedagogical personnel of higher educational establishments”. All these and other measures are a logical continuation of the large-scale reforms undertaken on all stages of the national education system after Uzbekistan gained independence.

At present, 60-plus institutes of higher education and universities function in the Republic. They are seeking to improve the way they teach students, in an effort to occupy a deserved position in the global education space. The quality of personnel training, combined with guarantees of finding good jobs   after graduation, is increasingly forming a major standard of performance for all higher educational establishments all over Uzbekistan.

Life, however, doesn’t stand still, and new requirements are regularly imposed on domestic universities, including their teaching staff. Some of them are specified in the Presidential Resolution, “On admittance to higher educational establishments of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the period 2016-2017” dated 26th May 2016. This remarkable document stipulates the full rejection of outdated approaches and teaching methods, as well as the introduction at institutes of higher education of new curricula and plans based on the latest scientific achievements and advanced pedagogical technologies. In an effort to improve the quality of personnel training in the field of higher education, the document in question recommends to enlist cooperation of some leading scientists and lecturers, basically on fundamental and technical subjects.

One of the most vital ingredients of a given Presidential Resolution is the requirement to take into consideration, when estimating their performance, the teaching staff’s command of foreign languages and the application of modern pedagogical, multi-media and information-communicative technologies in the teaching process. Starting 1st July of the current year, retraining and upgrade training of administrative and teaching staff of higher educational establishments should be organized in 15 basic centers set up at the Republic’s universities in keeping with the June 12, 2015 Presidential Decree. Professional skills of professors and lecturers should be raised with the aid of new curricula and progressive teaching methods, with cooperation of the world’s leading university researchers and professors being enlisted for these purposes without fail.

In that way, the activities of higher educational establishments in the key areas of personnel training is coming to the fore. To reiterate, highly qualified specialists can be trained only by excellent, erudite, well-versed and competent lecturers with doctorates in various subjects, professors and university readers. In the last few years, many of them have retired, leading, on the one hand, to the natural “rejuvenation” of the country’s university teaching staff, and to a tangible reduction in the number of teachers with academic degrees, on the other. This, in turn, has affected and goes on affecting both the organization and the quality of research work aimed at preparing and defending theses by young lecturers. So the formation of highly qualified specialists with academic degrees should be placed high on the agenda by indigenous universities.

Since the acquisition of independence, the Republic of Uzbekistan has been successfully putting into practice the following concept: “From a strong state to a strong civil society”. The state is seeking to reduce its presence in the national economy, giving its citizens an opportunity to organize and manage not only their own lives, but also the development of society as a whole. Such an environment supposes an immense rise in both the role and significance of modern personnel capable of addressing any problems and tasks of economic construction that will intensify the country’s production and economic potentialities, catapulting it to the level of the world’s developed nations.

(Source: «Business partner.uz» newspaper)

sport

An international synchronized swimming tournament, 'Suv Parisi' (Mermaid), has concluded in Tashkent

Over 100 athletes from ten countries strutted their stuff in the competitions organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports Affairs, the National Olympic Committee and the Swimming Federation of Uzbekistan.

The female athletes competed in solo, duet and group events in three age categories: 16-18, 13-15,12 and below.

The solo winner is Ziyoda Toshkhujayeva from Tashkent. In duet, the winner is the pair Anastasiya Ruzmetova and Gulsanam Yuldasneva. In group events, the winning teams are from Tashkent city and Andijan and Bukhara regions.

Other prize winners are athletes from Belarus, Hungary, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)