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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Uzbekistan
Index
In the first four years of independence, the West occupied an
increasing place in Uzbekistan's foreign policy. As relations with its
immediate neighbors have been expanding, pragmatic geopolitical and
economic considerations have come to dominate ethnic and religious
identities as motivations for policy decisions. This approach has
increased the interest of the Uzbekistani government in expanding ties
with the West and with Japan.
In the early 1990s, Uzbekistan became a member of the United Nations,
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF--see Glossary), the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, formerly the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, CSCE--see Glossary), the
North Atlantic Cooperation Council, and a number of other international
organizations. In that context, Uzbekistan is the beneficiary of several
aid projects of varying magnitudes. The World Bank has designed missions
and projects totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for such programs as
the Cotton Sub-Sector Development Program to improve farm productivity,
income, and international cotton marketing conditions and a program to
address the problems of the Aral Sea. In April 1995, the World Bank
allocated US$160 million in credit to Uzbekistan. In February 1995, the
IMF approved a loan to support the Uzbekistani government's macroeconomic
stabilization and systemic reform program. The first installment of the
loan, roughly US$75 million, will be funded over a ten-year period; the
second installment is to follow six months later, provided the
government's macroeconomic stabilization program is being implemented. The
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) likewise approved
several million dollars for projects in Uzbekistan. These signs of greater
involvement by the international community in Uzbekistan are largely
stimulated by the political stability that the government has been able to
maintain and in disregard of the human rights record, but many investors
still are cautious.
Data as of March 1996
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