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Business Newsletter
Week in Review:
November 7, 2011 - November 11, 2011
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 AUCC in Brief
Established in 1993, the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce (AUCC) is a private, non-profit trade association representing interests of U.S. businesses ranging in size from small private enterprises to large, multinational corporations conducting business in Uzbekistan.
Our Mission: To advocate the views of the business community to ensure that private sector positions are considered during the development of key policies that impact American businesses and the future of U.S.-Uzbekistan relations.
Our Objective: To serve the needs of its members by strengthening commercial relations between the United States and Uzbekistan.
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| Uzbek GDP growth projected at 8.4 percent
http://www.trend.az of 11/09/2011
Uzbekistan's GDP growth is projected at 8.4 percent, industrial output at 9.3 percent, agriculture at 6.0 percent and capital investments at 7.9 percent in 2011, UzReport.com reported.
These figures were announced at the meeting of the Uzbek Parliamentary Legislative Chamber's Budget and Economic Reforms Committee on Nov. 8. The meeting addressed priority directions for tax and budget policy and the draft state budget for 2012.
Following the implementation of the proposed fiscal policy activities in 2012, the state budget revenues to the GDP ratio was 21.1 percent.
It is expected to reduce the single tax rate from six percent to five percent for businesses in the industry with the view to further support and promote the accelerated development of small businesses in 2012.
As a result of the activities provided in the tax policy concept for 2012, the tax burden on the economy will be reduced 0.7 percent compared to the previous year.
The meeting noted that the fiscal policy concept for 2012 mainly focuses on the further development of social services, targeted assistance to the population, as well as strengthening of social orientation of budget expenditures.
First, the implementation of measures to improve the consistent wage employees of the budget organizations, pensions, stipends and welfare payments, will further improve the welfare of the population.
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| Shanghai Cooperation Organization Turns Attention to Economy
http://www.eurasiareview.com of 11/08/2011
Russia is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which brings it together with China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Already a political and diplomatic heavyweight, the SCO is now paying increasing attention to the economy, including trade, mutual investment and economic coordination between states and individual businesses.
The organization's latest prime ministerial summit in an imperial palace outside St Petersburg Monday heard an opinion about this from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:
"By working together, we can add a new quality to the SCO and make the organization a key element of the world's economic, as well as political, architecture and upgrade it to a productive dialogue forum which brings it together with many other regional and global international bodies. At a time of global economic trouble, it's coordination that can bring help."
Putin proposed what he called the Energy Club of the SCO and also argued that economic growth in SCO member states and the organization's role as a bridge between Europe and Asia can be greatly facilitated by joint infrastructure arrangements. For these, however, adequate funding must be in place:
"The common infrastructure, innovation and technologies that enable the SCO to pool resources can be supported by joint banks, already on mid-term development plans. Trade settlements in SCO currencies are also essential, as is the attraction of capital through stock exchanges in Moscow, Shanghai and Hong Kong."
Putin's initiatives for joint banking and trade in CSO currencies immediately won the support of his colleagues from Kazakhstan and China, Karim Masimov and Wen Jiabao. Mr Masimov said he hoped a big joint bank could help the CSO weather the economic storms in the surrounding world. Mr Wen offered easy Chinese credit for funding joint infrastructure projects. He also backed an initiative by Kazakhstan for trans-Eurasian oil and gas pipes and power lines and an initiative by Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for a network of modern railways and roads across the CSO.
The St Petersburg summit re-iterated assurances of SCO's openness to new potential members, observer members, collaborators and guests. Two of the current observer members, India and Pakistan, said they would like to become full members. Their bids will go before the next presidential summit of the SCO.
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http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr of 11/11/2011
South Korea said Sunday it has decided to provide a combined US$48 million in aid funds to help build a public hospital in Honduras and construct a geographical information system in Uzbekistan.
The money will come from Korea's state-run fund called the economic development cooperation fund (EDCF) aimed at helping less-developed countries through low interest rate loans.
The finance ministry said that Korea will help the Central American country with a state project to build a public hospital in the poverty-stricken region of Choluteca, which is likely to benefit around 1 million residents with medical services.
The project came as Honduran President Porfirio Lobo visited Seoul in February to ask for Korea to lend a hand with its public sector in fields such as education, health care and infrastructure development.
Meanwhile, the project to construct the geographical information system in Uzbekistan is aimed at accurately analyzing related data and helping craft its development projects, according to the finance ministry.
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| India calls for breaking trade and Investment barriers in SCO zone
http://www.indiainfoline.com of 11/09/2011
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde represented India at the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of Government in St. Petersburg on 7th November 2011. Making a statement on behalf of India, Shinde called for breaking barriers that inhibit trade and investment flows between the countries in the SCO zone. He said SCO should address the problem of limited connectivity through regional solutions. He said that India was ready to cooperate to find viable solutions to this problem and contribute to the endeavour to build bridges between Central and South Asia.
Drawing attention to the challenges faced by the world economy, Shinde said that there was a very real danger of a spillover of the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone to the rest of the world. He said that in a globally interconnected world, the SCO region could not remain unaffected by such developments. The Minister added that as nations deal with the short term problems of instability, they must also face the challenge of engineering a broad-based recovery and sustainable growth both in industrialized and developing economies. He said that the SCO countries are strengthened by the complementarities of their resources and must find the most suitable path to growth for them.
Expressing satisfaction over Afghanistan being a regular participant in the SCO forum, the Minister stated that the role of Afghanistan has recently been rightly recognized as a bridge connecting not just Central and South Asia, but also Eurasia and the Middle East. He said the SCO provides a promising regional platform, where members, observers and particularly Afghanistan itself, should have the opportunity to shape the agenda of peace and stability in the region.
Welcoming the adoption of SCO`s regulations for entry of new members at the Astana Summit this year, Shinde emphasized that India would be happy to play a larger, wider, more constructive and active role in the SCO as a full member as and when the organization finalizes expansion modalities.
On the sidelines of the forum, Shinde met the Second Vice President of Afghanistan Mohammad Karim Khalilli and discussed issues of bilateral cooperation. Shinde also had informal interactions with Prime Minister Putin of Russia, Prime Minister Wen of China, Prime Minister Gilani of Pakistan and other leaders.
The meeting hosted by Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin was attended by Heads of Governments and representatives of the member states of the SCO, (namely, Russia, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan). India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia are observer states while Afghanistan is a 'Special Invitee' at the forum. SCO has two level meetings in a year- the Heads of State Summit and the Heads of Government Summit. India regularly attends both meetings at a high level.
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 Contact Information The American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce
1300 I Street, N.W., Suite 720W
Washington, DC 20005
phone: 202.509.3744
info@aucconline.com
www.aucconline.com |
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