News from the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce

Business Newsletter

Week in Review:

January 6, 2012 - January 13, 2012

In this issue

AUCC in Brief

Better than expected U.S. support for global development

PetroVietnam to pump Uzbekistan oil

China gets 20 bn cubic meters of gas from Central Asia Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan starts construction of new hydro power station

AUCC Members

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.

Better than expected U.S. support for global development

http://www.brookings.edu/ of 1/6/2012

The amount of funding allocated for U.S. development spending in 2012 as part of the $1 trillion Omnibus spending bill passed by Congress a few weeks ago is a surprising achievement considering the current atmosphere of paralysis and partisan bickering in Washington. The bill gives $2.6 billion-an increase of 37 percent in spending over 2011- for capital increases and replenishments for major multilateral agencies and funds, such as the World Bank and IMF. In addition, funding to U.S. foreign assistance programs will rise slightly from $21.2 billion in 2011 to $21.5 billion next year.

The fact that the Obama administration got almost everything it requested in development spending is remarkable considering earlier this year the House had zeroed out contributions to multilateral agencies entirely, suggesting that it would be a hard lift to get any funding approved despite the fact that U.S. contributions had been painstakingly negotiated as part of a global burden-sharing arrangement. An additional complication was that the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank had all come forward with requests for more capital at the same time. Capital increases for international financial institutions are rare events; the last capital increase for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was in 1988. However, they were synchronized this year because large-scale emergency lending in response to the global downturn had quickly depleted the available headroom for future lending across several agencies. Full article is here.

PetroVietnam to pump Uzbekistan oil

http://www.upstreamonline.com/ of 1/13/2012

PetroVietnam, will pump oil from Uzbekistan as it moves to step up overseas exploitation activities. "PetroVietnam has been effectively conducting exploration work and is preparing to exploit oil in Kossor," the PetroVietnam-run Nang Luong Moi newspaper said in an online report on Friday. It did not give a timeframe for oil production. The Hanoi-based group's subsidiary PVEP has said it signed a contract to explore oil in Uzbekistan's Kossor block last year. PetroVietnam plans to sign a contract with Uzbekistan's National Holding Company, Uzbekneftegaz, to explore the Bukhara and Khiva regions, the Nang Luong Moi report said. As part of overseas oil production, PetroVietnam has been extracting oil from Malaysia's Block PM 304 and two fields in Russia's Nenetsky region, it said in a separate statement, according to Reuters. PetroVietnam is targeting 2012 crude output to total 317,500 barrels per day, up 4% from 2011 mainly due to increasing overseas production.

China gets 20 bn cubic meters of gas from Central Asia Tashkent, Uzbekistan

http:/www.uzdaily.com of 1/13/2012

China-Central Asia gas pipeline has transported over 20 billion cubic meters of gas from Central Asia to China since its launch to 7 January 2012, the Chinese media reported.

The media said that China get reliable guaranty to satisfaction of growing demands of the country for gas. People's Daily said that the gas pipeline delivered gas to 16 Chinese provinces in 2010 and number of provinces rose to 22 in 2011. Some 500 people receive gas. The repots aid that China imports 55 million cubic meters of gas from Central Asia after start of winter and the gas from Central Asia became important part of gas market of China.

Uzbekistan starts construction of new hydro power station

http://www.uzdaily.com of 1/11/2012

Uzvodenergo (Uzbek Water Energy), which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management of Uzbekistan) started construction of Kamchik hydro power station at Ahangaran river of Tashkent region with the cost of US$45.5 million. Prime agency reported that new power station will have capacity of 18 megawatt and will produce 60 million kilowatt-hour electricity a year in line with the feasibility study, approved in December 2011. The ower station will use natural water flow and it will be constructed in three years. Uzvodenergo representative said that the company started construction works. It is planned to announce tender on purchase of equipment in the first quarter of 2012. The project will be financed due to own resources of Uzvodenergo. Uzvodenergo developed a programme on development of small hydro power stations for 2011-2015, which envisages implementation of nine projects with the cost of US$260 million. It is planned to construct seven new and reconstruct two existing small hydro power stations in Tashkent and Surkhandarya region. The project implementation will allow to increase generating capacities from 394 megawatt in 2010 to 613 megawatt in 2015, which will allow to increase production of electricity at the small hydro power stations from 1,115 billion kilowatt-hour to 2.19 billion kilowatt-hour in the reporting period. This will help to save 685 million cubic meters of gas a year. The project will be financed due to resources of Uzvodenergo, received from realization of electricity from existing stations, as well as foreign loans and credits from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan.

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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