Cihan

March 21, 2015 

Uzbekistan Railways State Joint-Stock Railway Company has extended the contract for the operation and maintenance of the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif railway line in Afghanistan, Afghanistan's embassy in Uzbekistan told Trend.

"The agreement on the contract extension has been signed between the Uzbekistan Railways and the Ministry of Public Works of Afghanistan this week," a representative of the embassy said.

The contract has been extended for three years. According to the new terms of the contract, the Uzbek side will receive $ 19 million per year for the railway maintenance.

The Uzbek side was charged with training 150 railway engineers for Afghanistan and ensuring the transportation for exporting at least four million metric tons of Afghan goods as part of a new agreement.

Earlier, the goods were only imported to Afghanistan via the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif railway line.

Uzbekistan Railways completed the construction of the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif railway line in 2010. Earlier, Uzbekistan Railways won the tender announced by the government of Afghanistan. Uzbek specialists built a railway stretching 75 kilometers, several stations and reconstructed the Hairatan existing station. The gauge width of the railway line is 1,520 millimeters.

The project was implemented through the Asian Development Bank's grant in the amount of $ 165 million allocated to the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan government's own funds (about $5 million).

Almost a half of Afghanistan's imports, as well as many humanitarian goods, are transported through the Hairatan river port (located on the Amu Darya).

Commissioning of the railway has greatly increased the freight traffic.

The railway traffic was opened in December 2011. The government of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan Railways concluded a contract for operation and maintenance of the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif railway line for a period of three years in 2011. According to the contract, the Uzbek side annually receives $32 million (plus additional payment) for the agreed traffic volumes.

Uzbekistan Railways established Sogdiana Trans subsidiary for the railway maintenance in Afghanistan.

Dispatch News Desk

March 23, 2015 

Uzbekistan Familiarization Tours (Fam Tours) for Nuvroz successfully conducted by from March 17 to March 23, reports Dispatch News Desk (DND) news agency.

These Fam tours to promote tourism and culture of Uzbekistan will continue until November2015.

According to Silk Road Destinations (C.A.T.I.A), which is conducting the Fam Tours, foreign travel and tourism agents, travel writers, and tourism experts are being invited by Central Asia Incoming Tourism Agency (C.A.T.I.A) to promote products Uzbekistan offers to international visitors.

Travel experts and travel writers from France, Italy and United States visited Uzbekistan for these tours. Visitors were also shown Mitan Responsible Tourism Project that got International To Do 2014 Award this year at ITB Berlin.

"The idea behind offering Fam Tours by Silk Road Destinations is not to only promote tourism of Uzbekistan rather to encourage visitors to get a feel of exotic culture of Silk Road destinations and provide opportunities to different cultures to know and understand each other", said the company in a press statement issued here on Monday.

Fam Tours are a great learning tool for travel agents as they learn about the travel products of Uzbekistan and then agents are in position to recommend travel to their customers. Travel writers and documentary producers are also invited to visit destinations so they can write or put such destinations in their writing and travel documentaries. A large number of travel writers and documentary producers visited Uzbekistan through Silk Road Destinations and promote Uzbekistan at international travel and tourism events.

Those who attended Fam tours include Florence Colomban, Benoit Tredez, Nathalie Trichard, Brigitte Petre , Gauthier Magny, Fabrice Noyelle, Pierre Bessette, Marie-Jos� Goussard, Tara Isabella Burton, Caytlin Swartz, Tiziana Poli, Oriana Righero, Laura and Giampaolo Benelli

Next Fam tours will be offered in June, August and November 2015.

It may be mentioned that according to Uzbekistan Tourism National Reports, spring and autumn are the most visited seasons in Uzbekistan, followed by summer and winter. Generally, there are ten sunny months in Uzbekistan during the entire year.

Trend

March 25, 2015 

The Tashkent Pipe Plant joint venture LLC intends to begin the rolled sheet stock production for the next two years with a capacity of 150,000 metric tons per year annually, Uzmontajspecstroy joint-stock company, including the pipe plant, told Trend with the reference to the plant's development program.

The project cost is $79.6 million, a representative of the joint-stock company said.

The enterprise intends to begin the construction in late 2015.

The enterprise's development program also envisages the construction of welding electrode production with a capacity of 2,000 metric tons per year worth $4.4 million.

By the end of 2015, Tashkent Pipe Plant plans to complete the project on creation of profiled hot-rolled steel production of rolled metal products (rod and bar with diameter from 6.5 to 12 millimeters and from 12 to 45 millimeters, respectively) with design capacity of 30,000 metric tons per year and the value of $39.7 million, the production of strip and wire galvanizing with capacity of 3,000 metric tons and screws with capacity of 1,000 metric tons per year, having spent for these purposes $3.88 million and $4.44 million, respectively.

It is planned to carry out all the projects at the own expense of the joint venture.

The plant commissioned a metal-rolling complex in 2014 with the annual capacity of 130,000 metric tons of steel bar and rolled wire of various gage and with the diameter of 6-45 millimeters. Earlier, Uzbekistan was importing these products. The cost of the project was $30 million.

The length of the installed rolling mill is almost one kilometer and in terms of the certain technical and economic parameters and engineering solution it has no analogues in Central Asia, or in CIS countries.

The project is financed with the funds of the co-founders of the enterprise.

Moreover, as part of the program for expanding the production, the enterprise started the production of longitudinally welded pipes (89-219 millimeters) and profiled pipes (270-700 millimeters) with the total capacity of 55,000 metric tons per year, as well as steel pipes with polyolefin covering with the capacity of 8,000 metric tons per year.

Tashkent Pipe Plant JV, commissioned in 1999, is the largest enterprise for production of pipe products in Uzbekistan.

It produces steel thin-walled water and gas pipes, steel pipes of a diameter of 159 mm to 377 mm for main oil and gas pipelines, corrugated sheets and corrugated roofing slates from galvanized steel, and piping attachments.

The list of the main founders of the Tashkent Pipe Plant JV includes the US Capital Industrial Supply (62.4 percent share), the Russian company Onest-D (20 percent share) and China's Xinjiang Jinboer Industry & Trade Co. (17.2 percent share).

AUCC

March 27, 2015 

CAPRC

March 26, 2015 

You Are Invited To The 10th Annual Silk Road Conference

Monday, April 27, 2015

Organized by the Central Asian Productivity Research Center

Sponsored by Northern Illinois University, College of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology's Kent School of Law Auditorium

565 West Adams Street

Chicago, Illinois

For more information and agenda please contact Professor Harry Lepinske:

lepinske@sbcglobal.net

708-246-5556