Silk Road Economic Development Research
Center (SREDRC), One Belt One Road Research Institute (OBORRI) of Chu Hai
College and Institute for Entrepreneurship (IfE), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University co-organized the seminar
on the New Stage Developments in Uzbekistan on 10th Jan 2018. Uzbekistan has more than half of population
in the Central Asia and thus has great potentials under the new economic reform
and open door policy of the new President starting in late 2016. It is not only
aspiring to the geo-economic hub in the Central Asia because of its oil and gas
and great agricultural resources; it has been considered to be the coming
geostrategic hub of the Central and of the Eurasian landmass as a whole. This seminar introduced their economic revitalization
that opens the window to Uzbekistan and to the Central Asia. I took a photo with Dr CHAN Man Hung, Thomas
(Director, One Belt One Road Research Institute) for memory.
I made a new Kazakhstan friend - Mr.
Iskander Baitassov who is the Consul of the Consulate General of the Republic
of Kazakhstan in Hong Kong and Macau.
The first keynote speaker was Mr. Vladimir
Norov (Director of the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under
the President of Uzbekistan, formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs and State
Advisor to the President, Republic of Uzbekistan) and his topic named “The New
Development Plans of Uzbekistan in the New Era”. In the beginning, Mr. Norov introduced the
history of Uzbekistan. The founding of
the Silk Road historians referred to the II century B.C. when Chinese
ambassador Zhang Qian (張騫)
visited the countries of Central Asia with a diplomatic mission. Then he
briefed some goods of trade included Davani horses of Ferghana and Velvet.
Uzbekistan has 32.5 million people, 130 nationalities living in peace and harmony, with 2200 registered religious organizations. Uzbekistan has enormous potential of its natural resources, locates in an important geographical location in the centre of Eurasia with open and liberal economic policy. Their first president developed a program with five principles ensuring economy’s self-sufficiency and reducing dependence on external imports of finished products. Good results were showed in the following diagram from 2000 to 2013.
Then Mr. Norov briefed some programs such as
auto factories, oil refinery, gas chemical complex, soda plant, railway,
textile, etc. One of the main goals of
the “Strategy of Actions (2017-2021)” is to become competitive in the world
arena in the field of science, intellectual potential, staff training and high
technologies.
Strategy of Actions had five key items were
showed as follows:
i.
Improving
the state and public construction system
ii.
Ensuring
the rule of law and further reform of the judicial system
iii.
Development
and liberalization of the economy
iv.
Development
of the Social sphere
v. Ensuring
the security, inter-ethnic harmony and religious tolerance, implementation of
balanced, mutually beneficial and constructive foreign policy
In December 2017, the President Sh.
Mirziyoyev outlined the priorities and stressed Uzbekistan moving to the path
of innovative development and 2018 was named the “Year of Supporting of Active
Business, Innovative Ideas and Technologies”.
Three main principles of foreign policy of
Uzbekistan was mentioned as following diagram.
Finally, he mentioned some cooperation in
OBOR such as “Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China” railway. “The first state visit of the President of
Uzbekistan Sh. Mirziyoyev to China in May 12-15, 2017 was the most productive”
said by Mr. Norov. Their President also
participated in the International Forum “One Belt, One Road” from 14-15 May
2017 in Beijing.
At the end, Mr. Norov stated the interaction
with leading research and academic institutions of China (including Tsinghua
University, Shanghai Academy of International Studies, etc.) since 2012.
The second speaker was Mr. Oybek Khamraev
(Head of Department, The State Investments Committee of the Republic of
Uzbekistan) and his presentation entitled “This is the Right Time to Invest in
Uzbekistan”. Firstly, he briefed the
main facts of Uzbekistan including 448,000km2 total are, 32 million
total population (where 76 people per km2) and languages spoken in
Uzbek, Russian and English.
Mr. Khamraey mentioned Uzbekistan was an
attractive investment destination because of supportive business climate and
growing diversified economy. Action
strategy for 2017-2021 stated 5 priorities in which Economic development and liberation
had several key areas would be focused.
It included stable foreign exchange rate, modernization, technology
development, tax system, etc.
Comparison of World Bank doing business
ranking from 2012 and 2017, Uzbekistan ranking was from 166 increased to
74. He said they eliminated 160
licensing procedures and 19 administrative activities in recent years.
Then Mr. Khamraey said the increasing of
China-Uzbekistan cooperation in different industries. There were involved many projects such as
CNODC State Development Bank of China, Oil production, Gas Condensate Field, etc. One company related to Hong Kong named “Hong
Kong ZRSC Technology” and they related to produce ceramic tiles and sanitary
ceramics.
There were several industry sessions had
investment opportunities included Tourism, Food and Food Processing, Textile
Industry, Construction Materials, Pharmaceutical Industry and Chemical
Industry. Companies with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) included Coca-Cola,
CAT, KPMG, LG, UMS, ZTE, HUAWEI, GM, LOTTE, etc.
Finally, Mr. Khamraey briefed the investment
process from Ideate to Select, to Design and Execute and then to Operate. Their state investment committee would help
investors along this way.
The last speaker was Dr. Thomas Chan (Director,
One Belt One Road Research Institute, Chu Hai College) and this presentation
was “From Uzbekistan to Central Asia and the Belt and Road Initiative”. He said
the historical silk road(s) with many branching routes, but the centre of
Eurasian connectivity had always been in the Central Asia and in particular in
Uzbekistan.
Central Asia was the hub of the ancient Silk
Road said by Dr. Chan. After the end of
the Cold War, it provided chances for relinking Central Asia Regional Economic
Cooperation (CAREC) plans for the Eurasian connections in the 1990s. 11 CAREC Countries included Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Monoglia, Pakistan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, & Uzbekistan.
After that Dr. Chan introduced 6 transport
corridors of CAREC below:
Corridor 1 –Europe to East Asia through
Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
Corridor 2 – Mediterranean to East Asia
Corridor 3 – Russian Federation to Middle
East and South Asia through Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan
& Uzbekistan
Corridor 4 – Russian Federation to East Asia
via Karachi, Gwadar and Bandar Abbas ports
Corridor 5 – East Asia to Middle East and
South Asia through China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikhstan and Afghanistan
Corridor 6 – Europe and Russia to the Middle
East and South Asia via Karachi, Gwadar, and Bandar Abbas ports
At the end, Dr. Chan briefed the role of
Hong Kong. He said Hong Kong could be
serve as the overseas headquarter for Uzbekistan and Central Asia countries and
become the platform for investors. Hong
Kong needs to improve connectivity with Uzbekistan and Central Asia such as
direct flights. Moreover, our education
exchanges should be increased.
Institute for Strategic and Interregional
Studies under the President of Uzbekistan and One Belt One Road Research
Institute, Chu Hai College signed the MOU for cooperation.
In the interactive session, Dr. Alwin Wong
(Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship, PolyU) gave an opening remark. Mr. Joseph Chan (Chairman of the Silk Road
Economic Development Research Center) (Left) encouraged young people to work in
Centre Asia and learnt Russian language.
My questions were i) VISA application and
ii) Currency exchange. I met that
problem when I visited Uzbekistan in 2012.
Since I was invited to be one of keynote speakers, the organizer arranged
all matters for me. If I visited by
myself, I would meet those problems. Mr. Norov said it had changed a lot from
2012 to 2018 and they used e-VISA application now.
Many participants asked questions and we had a good discussion afternoon.
I would like to share the sculpture of “Alisher
Navoiy” that I brought in Uzbekistan airport in 2012 (~HK$500). Alisher Navoiy (1441-1501) is an ingenious
poet and the thinker, the musician and the artist, the teacher and the
scientist, a great statesman and one of the most cultural persons of this time.
Reference:
SREDRC - http://www.silkroadresearch.org/
OBORRI - https://www.chuhai.edu.hk/node/1794
20171123: Kazakhstan and Japan guests visit
Data Studio in Science Park - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2017/11/kazakhstan-and-japan-guests-visit-data.html
20160411: PolyU Talk on New “Silk Road”
Regional Policies and Infrastructure Politics - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2016/04/polyu-talk-on-new-silk-road-regional.html
Visit
to Kazakhstan
20110613: Almaty Visit before TQM Kaz 2011
Forum - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/06/almaty-visit-before-tqm-kaz-2011-forum.html
20110614: Visit to State National Natural
Park of Charin - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/06/visit-to-state-national-natural-park-of.html
20110615: TQM Kaz 2011 – Day One - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/06/tqm-kaz-2011-day-one.html
20110616: TQM Kaz 2011 – Day Two - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/06/tqm-kaz-2011-day-two.html
20110617: TQM Kaz 2011 – Day Three - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/06/tqm-kaz-2011-day-three.html
Visit
to Uzbekistan
20120424: Arrival Tashkent, Uzbekistan and
Dinner with Prof. Azat - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/05/arrival-tashkent-uzbekistan-and-dinner.html
20120425: Visit to Samarqand - A day before
TQM Uz 2012 Forum - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/04/visit-to-samarqand-day-before-tqm-uz.html
20120426: TQM Uz 2012 Forum - Day One - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/04/tqm-uz-2012-forum-day-one.html
20120427: TQM Uz 2012 Forum – Day Two - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/04/tqm-uz-2012-day-two.html
20120428: Tashkent City Tour - A Day after
TQM Forum & Jeju visit - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/05/city-tour-after-tqm-forum.html
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