Sustainment Solutions, Inc.

April 10, 2015 

Scott Shinn, President and CEO of Sustainment Solutions, Inc. (SSI) in Lancaster, KY, has been named the SBA 2015 Kentucky Small Business Person of the Year by the Kentucky District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The company is a Veteran-Owned, HUBZone certified business and has participated in SBA's STEP exporting program, received business analysis from the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Lexington and mentored at the SCORE - Lexington Chapter, both SBA Resource Partners, and worked with the Procurement Technical Assistance Center, now administered by the Kentucky SBDC Network.

Shinn began his career in the U.S. Air Force in 1993 and was deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom and Southern Watch. He completed his military career in 2002 but returned to Iraq and Afghanistan with tasks that included managing, installing, maintaining, and servicing security equipment utilized by U.S. Military forces and NATO.

SSI has experienced 700% growth in revenue since its inception in 2009 and operates in tough, remote and hazardous climates. The company has seven full-time employees and 40+ contractors worldwide, with a footprint that has grown to 25 countries and counting.

As a leader, Scott understands the value and skillset of veterans and hires veterans. As an entrepreneur, he is always looking to invest in new technology and ideas, which he couples with his passion to help military veterans and children. He is an active board member for Kentucky-based Wilderness Trace Child Development Center, serves on Governor Beshear's Advisory Board for Veterans Affairs, is a member of the Kentucky District Export Council and supports many sports and entrepreneurship activities in Garrard County.

"I am extremely humbled by SBA's decision to recognize me as the Kentucky Small Business Person of the Year. God has surely blessed us with an excellent team of veteran engineers and support staff that we have assembled at SSI, and I am proud of the sustainment, installation, and construction work that we do for the DoD, State Department, NATO and other international agencies.

The Times of Central Asia

April 8, 2015 

Uzbekistan's joint-stock electro-technical company Uzeltechsanoat by 2017 plans to organize production of photovoltaic power plants with a capacity of up to 500 KW in the Navoi free industrial and economic zone, Review.uz reported.  

The project provides for attraction of direct foreign investments.

Solar energy generation has good prospects in Uzbekistan, although it requires large capital investment and large areas for placing solar panels, Akrom Mirzabayev, general director of Tashkent-based photovoltaic equipment producer Mir Solar, told Review.uz.        

In his words, the state provides legislative support for domestic photovoltaic producers. Mir Solar, for example, was included in the state production localization program in 2009, and has been exempted from all taxes and customs duties for seven years.   

The strategy of photovoltaic equipment production at the company meets the interests of the state, the general director said. The company has minimized the use of imported components and developed its own technology for the production of photovoltaic equipment. The level of production localization at the company (that is, the use of domestically produced components) is 62.5 percent.     

The state support has helped the Uzbek company to successfully compete with leading Chinese photovoltaic equipment producers.

However, according to Mirzabayev, for further development Uzbek photovoltaic producers need more support from the state, including provision of low-interest loans for the purchase of renewable energy equipment for at least 15 years, introduction of leasing schemes, and introduction of tariffs for "green" energy.

Azernews

April 7, 2015 

Uzbekistan will launch new projects on modernization and technological upgrade of its oil and gas industry.

Uzbekneftegaz national holding of Uzbekistan will start oil and gas projects under the new program worth $7.1 billion in 2015, RIA Novosti reported.

The program approved by President Islam Karimov includes 39 projects on modernization, technical and technological upgrade of oil and gas industry.

The total of investments and loans amount to $5.1 billion, the funds to be allocated by Uzbekistan - $1.14 billion, loans from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan - $543.8 million, and the Uzbek banks - $313.7 million.

Uzbekistan has 594 million barrels of proven crude oil reserves as of 2014, according to Oil and Gas Journal. The country also has 65 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves according to data published in 2013.

Roughly 60 percent of all known oil and natural gas fields are located in the Bukhara-Khiva region. The region is the source of approximately 70 percent of the country's oil production.

Russia's Lukoil and Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation are among the most heavily invested companies in Uzbekistan's oil and natural gas industry.

Russian oil giant Lukoil in the current year will begin the active phase of the project for the construction of a gas processing plant and the equipment furbishing of Kandim group of fields in the Bukhara region for an estimated investment of $2.66 billion. GPP, which will have a capacity of 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas a year, will be built by 2019.

Uzbekneftegaz and China's CNPC will begin the construction of the fourth line of the Uzbek section of the pipeline "Central Asia-China" worth $800 million. Construction of the pipeline - with a capacity of 20 billion cubic meters of gas - is to complete by 2017.

South Korean IRED Co. ltd will prepare a technical solution to expand the capacity of Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex in Kashkadarya region in the current year. The project which will cost at estimated$570 million will be completed by 2020.

Uzbekistan was the third largest natural gas producer in Eurasia, behind Russia and Turkmenistan in 2012. With a highly energy-intensive economy, Uzbekistan holds sizable hydrocarbon reserves of mostly natural gas. However, insufficient pipelines to export higher volumes of hydrocarbons and aging energy infrastructure have slowed the production, distribution, and exports of hydrocarbons in recent years, according to the International Energy Agency.

Uzbekistan is rich in hydrocarbon resources, and about 60 percent of its territory possesses potential oil and gas reserves. Uzbekistan ranks third among the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and fifteenth among the countries of the world in terms of annual natural gas production.

The projected reserves of hydrocarbons stand at about 10 billion tons of standard fuel, while prospective ones amount to about 2 billion tons.

There are five oil and gas regions - Ustyurt, Bukhara-Khiva, Surkhandarya, Hissar, and Fergana - and three promising ones -Khorezm, Middle Syr Darya and Zarafshan- in Uzbekistan.

Fibre2Fashion

April 6, 2015 

LT Textile Cooperatief UA, a Dutch textile firm, has started the construction of a large textile complex spread over 30 hectares in Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan, according to media reports.

The construction of the textile complex comes on the back of an investment agreement between the ministry of foreign economic relations, investments and trade of Uzbekistan and LT Textile Cooperatief signed last October. 

The Dutch company will invest at least $55 million in the textile enterprise in 2015-2016 in accordance with this agreement, including $17 million of its own funds, $38 million from foreign banks.

The new complex will have a capacity to process 20,000 metric tonnes of cotton fibre and produce 15,000 metric tonnes of cotton and mixed yarn per year.

Under the agreement, the enterprise will be provided with modern high-tech and energy-efficient equipment. The complex is targeted to be commissioned in November 2016 and will start operating to full capacity in Q1 of 2017. Exports will comprise 80 per cent of the enterprise's products.

Uzbekistan is the sixth producer and third largest exporter of cotton fibre in the world with a production of 1.2 million metric tonnes of cotton fibre.

AUCC

April 10, 2015