“I addressed my demands to Rustam Azimov because he is personally responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution No.207 of 12th September 2008,” Tikhonov told uznews.net.

Earlier this year at the start of the cotton harvest, Angren authorities posted flyers around the city stating that the use of forced child labour was against the law, uznews.net reported.

Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov at annual meeting of Asian Development Bank, 2010. Photo by Asian Development Bank.

But the leaflet also carried a propaganda twist — it denounced the “mendacious insinuations and misinformation” of foreign media about allegations of widespread forced labour.

In fact, through the efforts of monitors this season, once again massive use of forced child labour has been documented throughout Uzbekistan.

The flyer carried a threat — “any attempts to force children to work, whether by threatening reprisals against the children themselves or their parents, will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of Uzbekistan.”

Parents said the flyer was too little, too late. By the time it was posted, their kids were already out in the fields. Decree 207 was designed to implement Uzbekistan’s obligations in ratifying the conventions of the International Labour Organisation regarding the worst forms of child labour. Activists say that little attention is paid to the decree, however; while it is published on the Internet, it is not broadcast or printed in Uzbekistan.

One good thing is that parents can now cite this law — if they dare, given the possible reprisals.

Tikhonov decided to take up the issue of the non-enforcement of Decree No. 207, and wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Azimov complaining about the forcible recruitment of vocational and high school students to pick cotton. He was particularly disturbed by the practice of parents paying large bribes of up to $120 to get their children out of the harvest. They were too afraid to protest.

Tikhonov, a member of the Human Rights Alliance, also protested the failure to publish the law. The human rights advocate himself has faced reprisals for his work. In 2010, he was approached by strangers on the street who asked why he was writing on the Internet — then hit him over the head with an iron bar. For some time he was denied an exit visa — still required for travel outside of Uzbekistan. He publicized his case and eventually was granted permission, and then was later able to return home.

By the time Saidburkhan, a traditional healer from a small Uzbek town in the Ferghana Valley, arrived at work on a recent autumn day, his private clinic specializing in herbal medicine was packed. Three blocks away, a government-run hospital was empty – most doctors and nurses, under pressure from local authorities, were out in the cotton fields, fulfilling government harvest quotas.

Young girl picking cottin in Kashkadarya, October 2011

UNICEF representatives have been officially invited to Uzbekistan to conduct monitoring of reports of the use of child labor, Radio Ozodlik reported.

Jean-Michel Delmotte, the representative of UNICEF in Tashkent, confirmed that the proposal had come from the government of Uzbekistan, the Russian news agency Regnum reported. Delmotte said that the Uzbek authorities promised to give him comprehensive assistance in organizing monitoring of the problem of child labor.

Publications by WikiLeaks of alleged classified diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Tashkent indicate that UNICEF repeatedly tried to minimize the scale of the problem of forced child labor in Uzbekistan and argued against a boycott, EurasiaNet reported.

UNICEF has not made any comment about the WikiLeaks revelations.

Meanwhile, this year, as in past years child labor in the cotton harvest has been documented by local monitors. The Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan reported that in Kashkadarya province, fifth-graders were taken to harvest the cotton.

“The daily quota is 80-100 kilos. For each harvested kilo, 150 soums (about 5 cents) is paid,” Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group told Radio Ozodlik.

It is important to point out that while the Uzbek government decided to invite UNICEF to observe child labor, it has refused to invite an independent monitoring group from the International Labor Organization (ILO), however.

Uzbek authorities also continue to interfere with the monitoring of child labor by Uzbek human rights activists. In Koson district, two human rights activists from Kashkadarya were detained by police for monitoring the use of children in the cotton harvest.

In recent years, more than 60 Western companies have pledged not to buy Uzbek cotton in order to compel the government to cease the use of child labor, Responsible Sourcing Network reports. They include Wal-Mart, Marks & Spencer, the Gap, Tesco, Gymboree and others.

The Uzbek government continues to deny that children are forced to work in the harvest.

Uzbek Girl 2011. Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

Organizations working in the campaign against forced child labour have estimated the number of children working in the cotton fields to be from 1.5 million to 2 million. These estimates were made on the basis of extrapolation of numbers based on surveys of limited areas. Recently, two new sources became available which help confirm these figures and indicate in fact the number may be higher.

Uzbekistan is a closed society with an authoritarian regime where independent local and international monitors are heavily discouraged, and the media is not free to report critically without reprisals. Uzbekistan has not permitted the International Labour Organisation to enter the country and monitor the cotton harvest to determine the ages of people working and the conditions of their work.

Therefore, past estimates have had to rely on studies of some provinces and extrapolation from available known data

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London has published studies of the use of children in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan for a number of years. The latest study was based on past reports that were updated in 2010. Based on a survey of some areas, SOAS was able to estimate the number of children used in the cotton harvest:

Based on the survey of six districts, and extrapolating on the basis of further evidence, the conclusion was that ‘[p]ractically all school children between the ages of 10 and 15 years old (from 5th to 9th grades) in rural areas and small towns (district centres) were being recruited for the cotton harvest’ (SOAS, 2009: 19). This equates to about 2.4 million children in the 5th–9th grades and means that children picked an estimated 40–50% of the total cotton harvest.

In August of this year, a number of cables alleged to have been obtained from diplomatic sources by the activist group WikiLeaks were published. The release of these cables began in November 2010 and have continued throughout the year, culminating in the largest batch. Among these cables are numerous reports from the US embassy on its meetings with Uzbek officials and representatives of UNICEF regarding the issue of forced child labor.

In a cable dated June 6, 2008, the US Embassy in Tashkent quoted the figure supplied by the state-controlled trade union:

According to a knowledgeable source, the Trade Union of Uzbekistan (a quasi-governmental organization) estimated in 2008 that 1.64 million school-age children were involved in agricultural work, including cotton picking, representing 45 percent of the total number of Uzbek schoolchildren in grades 5 to 11.

Since most of the agricultural work performed by school-children in Uzbekistan relates to the cotton industry, it is safe to say that the 1.64 million children referenced here are involved in cotton-picking.

This cable also mentions non-governmental groups inside the country who have estimated that anywhere from several hundred thousands to 2 million children could be involved in harvesting cotton. In defense of argumentation that there are less children employed than previously, the cable notes the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey performed by UNICEF, a study that was later acknowledged by UNICEF to be flawed. The cable author as well notes that the survey was conducted in March and May 2006, and thus did not capture the use of children during the fall cotton harvest period from September through November.

Although this cable conceded both the NGO estimates of one million and even referenced the official trade union figure of 1.64, in a subsequent cable, a US diplomat contradicted the Embassy’s own previous assessments and claimed that NGO figures were not reliable.

NGOs have continued to press for the entry of the ILO into Uzbekistan, and to gather information about forced labor.

This season, there was a breakthrough when monitors inside Uzbekistan were able to get a hold of a document that indirectly confirms the numbers of children mobilized in one region.

The Paris-based group Association Droits de l’Homme en Asie Centrale (the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, AHRCA) recently was able to obtain an official government document that indicates plans by the authorities to send as many as 170,000 school-children to pick cotton in the Khorezm region.

The document — an official press release — is said to demonstrate the wide-scale involvement of the state bureaucracy in both coercing children and adults to pick cotton, and punishing them if they fail to obey orders.

The press-release, prepared by the Khorezm region Interior Ministry, stated:

In order to have a quality harvest, in the 2011 harvest, we will have a short time frame to mobilize cotton-pickers, a total of 202,641 people, including 34,800 students from colleges, and high schools. 463 temporary residences (302 field barracks), 109 civilian housing units, 52 tents, etc., have been prepared for their accommodation

This type of press release is typically distributed among local mass media and to the participants of staff meetings held nearly every evening during the cotton season at the offices of provincial and district authorities.

As AHRCA points out, if the authorities have given the total of 202,641 in their province, and the 34,800 college students are subtracted from that figure, the remainder is 167,841 people — and these are likely to be even younger students.

(In Uzbekistan, where children attend school for 10 years, “college” means a high-school level vocational school or academy for older teens).

While there is only an indirect indication that this figure of nearly 170,000 is a reference to school-age children, it’s very likely that for the purposes of planning, this is what is intended, since officials would know the exact number of students enrolled. If the reference was to day laborers, for example, the figure could only be approximate as the large number of labor migrants abroad and the numbers of those returning to Uzbekistan are fluid. If the reference was to teachers or other state employees, they would have been mentioned as a category of people.

Based on the figure of 170,000 out of the population of Khorezm, which constitutes 6% of all 13 cotton-producing regions of Uzbekistan, the likely number of schoolchildren mobilized to pick cotton throughout the country is then estimated at 2,797,350 persons, or at the very least, 2.5 million people.

The document also outlines the coercive nature of the cotton industry:

The subjects of this forced labor are not only schoolchildren and students, but the farmers themselves. Criminal proceedings are brought against those who plant anything other than cotton in their fields, such as more profitable crops, or those who allow livestock to graze in their fields. Two typical details from the press release of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:

1) “As a result of measures taken by law enforcement bodies, we have identified 230 cases of rice cultivation without permission, and among them 222 cases at farms and 8 cases of partial allotments, a total of 941 hectares…According to these facts, materials were prepared and brought to the courts to take action in accordance with the law.”

2) “…On June 2, 2011 in the village of Boshkirshik, Yangibazar district, in the cotton field at the Istikbol Farm owned by Atadjanov Saparboy (date of birth: 09/30/1956), a cow trampled 293 cotton bushes on a 95.4 square kilometer area.”

For this “offense,” the farmer’s cow was confiscated, slaughtered, and the meat was turned over to other agencies.

“This document demonstrates that the government of Uzbekistan does not intend to change anything in the command economy established in the cotton industry, with its usual practice of mass forced labor of workers sent to pick cotton each autumn,” says AHRCA.

“In our view, the only way to persuade the Uzbek government to stop the Stalinist practice of forced labor is to conduct a boycott of its cotton and textiles,” says AHRCA.

AHRCA has called upon the European Parliament to reject pending legislation that would give preferential tariffs for Uzbek textiles exported to Europe and to abolish the Generalized System of Preferences for Uzbek cotton and textiles.

Uzbek children, 2011. Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

Some 330 companies from 38 countries reportedly sent representatives to the fair and those representatives bought a reported 600,000 tons of Uzbek cotton and textile products on October 12-13.

Uzbek media reported that China’s Xinjiang Group of Agricultural Resources and Tianzhan Cotton Exchange, Elma Yarn of Bangladesh, Vinotex of Vietnam, Toeshima of Japan, Arta Tejarat Zamin of Iran, Falcon of Turkey, Miad General Trading of the United Arab Emirates, Tirotex of Moldova, Russia’s TransSpecProm, and Bellegprom of Belarus were the major purchasers at the fair.

Many international companies stayed away from the fair: more than 60 worldwide have announced a boycott of Uzbek cotton, which rights groups say is often picked by children in violation of child-labor laws.

There are also many reports of secondary and university students along with some professionals being “volunteered” to harvest cotton instead of attending school or working.

The campaign against purchasing Uzbek cotton has seen increased support among Western companies in recent years with well-known brands such as Burberry, Levi’s, H&M, and others publicly vowing to avoid knowingly buy it.

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Tashkent Cotton Fair, October 2011. Photos by gov.uz

Tashkent’s 6th international cotton and textile fair opened this week, and Uzbekistan’s state media trumpeted the event, initiated by President Islam Karimov, as a triumph of the national economy and the dictator’s “Uzbek model of reform” practiced for the last 20 years since independence.

Once again, the government web site gov.uz trotted out figures claiming a stunning growth of the GDP — numbers that are difficult to check given heavy state control over information and persecution of independent journalists.

The event is not only a source of a good chunk of Uzbekistan’s foreign currency revenue — Tashkent took in $500 million in orders last year and expects more this year — it also serves to further glorify the state:

“The Conception for further deepening of democratic reforms and formation of civil society in our country designed by our head of state has opened up a new stage of democratic market reforms and liberalization of the economy,” gushed the government website.”

Yet agriculture remains under state control as it did in the Soviet era, with farmers forced to meet state quotas and sell their cotton at fixed prices. With the high price of cotton and the drought in Uzbekistan this year, farmers have been pressured more than ever by local administrators.

Some farmers in Surkhandarya last month who were unable to produce their state quotas were thrown in jail, and sadly one man, Ismail Turanazarov, committed suicide. He left a note that he was unable to get fuel or a loan for his crops — an all too common story, according to human rights monitors in Uzbekistan. State propaganda claims that farmers can get favorable loans to develop their land, but activists report that many banks are corrupt and officers loan only to government officials and their relatives.

The monitors also report widespread use of children as young as 10 and 12 in the fields, in the 5th through 7th grades, laboring alongside their teachers in many cases and exposed to cold, lack of food, dust, and pesticides. Through great risks, activists have been able to get out numerous pictures and videos documenting the exploitation of children and adults.

Such conditions have prompted human rights and labor groups to look for various ways to publicize the issue, including at a picket of President Karimov’s daughter Gulnara when her designs were shown on a Manhattan runway. More than 60 companies and an apparels trade association have now pledged not to source their cotton in Uzbekistan. Yet most of them are from the US and European Union; 330 other companies from 38 countries around the world showed up at the Tashkent Cotton Fair this year — as the government boasts — 30 more than last year.

Does that mean that the boycotts don’t make a difference and can’t make a dent in the demand? Uzbekistan in fact has forged new trading partnerships with Pakistan this year as floods reduced the harvest last year, and has enjoyed increasing cooperation with South Asian countries.

Yet from the state propaganda, it’s clear the regime craves legitimacy, and that can be a lever for change. A centerpiece of the gov.uz article (only in the Russian edition ) is mention of Christian Schindler of Germany, director of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation; Ray Butler of the International Cotton Association and other traders who were portrayed as praising their partnership with Uzbekistan and its great prospects at the fair. These are the kinds of people that activists are increasingly reaching.

Even without an immediately visible impact, the boycott seems justified as a moral task, and one that activists don’t seem to expect to work instantly. Already, some results have become apparent. The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee voted to end favorable tariffs for Uzbekistan under their trade agreement, and the International Trade Committee will vote on the issue November 22.

Uzbekistan is sensitive enough to world public opinion that it ratified the International Labor Organization’s conventions against child and forced labor, and has lurched between saying there is no forced labor, to saying that it is successfully monitoring and eradicating it — although the conditions have not been verified as Tashkent has not permitted an ILO inspection team to enter the country.

This article first appeared on Choihona blog at EurasiaNet.

Uzbek Child 9/11 Photo by Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

Uzbekistan has opened its seventh International Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent with some 330 companies from 38 countries sending representatives, even as others boycott the event, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reported.

The event’s website said that the “primary goal of such an endeavor is to further expand long-term cooperation with international organizations and foreign companies.”

It said delegates at the fair would be able to examine “more than 800 varieties of Uzbek cotton fibers.”

But many international companies are staying away from the fair. More than 60 companies worldwide have announced a boycott of Uzbek cotton, which rights groups say is often picked by children in violation of child-labor laws.

There are also many reports of secondary and university students along with some professionals being “volunteered” to harvest cotton instead of attending school or working.

The campaign against purchasing Uzbek cotton has seen increased support among Western companies in recent years with well-known brands such as Burberry, Levi’s, H&M, and others publicly vowing to avoid knowingly buy it.

Other companies, however, have not been deterred from placing orders for Uzbekistan’s “white gold.”

Russian-based companies reportedly buy some 40 percent of Uzbekistan’s cotton with companies from China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates placing orders for the bulk of the remaining 60 percent.

Uzbekistan’s sales of cotton from the 2010 cotton fair amounted to some $500 million.

The cotton fair ends on October 13.

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Starting October 6, children from Uzbekistan’s most densely-populated province of Andijan were taken to pick cotton. Earlier, local administrators (the khokimiyat) had stated that this year, they would not force middle-school children to take part in the harvest.

But once again, the children were brought to the fields of farmers who in the past year could not manage to meet the state quota for cotton deliveries.

Children from grades 7 through 9 in the middle school (from ages 12 to 16) are now working in the fields. They are being paid 120 soums per kilogram of cotton, i.e. the equivalent of 5 cents per kilo.

Under instructions from the khokim, or local administrator, farmers who have school-children working in their fields must provide them with one hot meal a day (lunch) and clean drinking water.

But not all the farmers have the capacity to build temporary housing for the cotton-pickers, or to prepare them hot food, or to put a samovar on to boil in the fields.

Most of the children are bringing food from home, and are putting down old newspapers by the side of the road to sit on and have their lunch.

In the local press in Andijan, there was a notice that as of October 1st, Andijan province had submitted 71 percent of its quota to the government. There is a lot of cotton left unpicked in the fields. Adults are able to pick about 100-120 kg per day. They are paid 150 soums per kilogram of cotton (more than 5 cents per kg).

According to the state media, President Islam Karimov visited Andijan province from September 30-October 1, and it was reported that he went to inspect the cotton fields. Special fields were prepared for his visit, which had been sprayed with defoliants not long before that and no cotton-pickers were allowed in the area. But the field was left filled with snowy-white cotton bolls to show to the leader.

According to the available information, the harvest is expected to be completed before early November, that is, local people are hoping to gather in the whole crop before the onset of rains.

Uzbek child, September 2011. Photo by Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

Twenty organizations today signed a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the US government not to resume “business as usual” with Uzbekistan due to persistent and serious human rights problems such as torture and forced child labor.

The groups included human rights organizations Amnesty International USA, the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Freedom House, Freedom Now, and Human Rights Watch; labor unions AFL-CIO and labor rights groups International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF and The Child Labor Coalition as well as Tashkent-based organizations such as the Expert Working Group and the exile groups Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights.

The activists expressed concern over approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee that will allow a waiver of human rights restrictions under US law to enable US military assistance to the Uzbek government.

“We call on you to stand behind your strong past statements regarding human rights abuses in Uzbekistan,” the signatories said in their letter to Clinton. “We strongly urge you to oppose passage of the law and not to invoke this waiver.” The Obama administration has called on Congress to support the waiver to enable such assistance as bullet-proof jackets for Uzbek law-enforcers.

The language already approved on September 21 will likely be included in an eventual foreign operations bill voted on later this year, barring the unlikely case of any senator willing to hold up the whole bill over Uzbekistan.

In a separate action, about 60 activists staged a picket today in Washington, DC in front of the Hotel W, site of an all-day Annual Business Forum of the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce (AUCC).

Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev as well as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Susan M. Elliott were scheduled to speak at the meeting, which included a number of high-level corporate executives from companies doing business with Uzbekistan, such as Honeywell, General Motors (GM), General Electric, and NUKEM.

Participants in the demonstration included the American Federation of Teachers, Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, the National Consumers League, the Solidarity Center and the Coalition of Labor Union Women. They were joined by Yusuf Sobirov and his fellow Uzbek emigre community members active in the Uzbek People’s Movement (also known as the People’s Movement of Uzbekistan).

Judy Gearheart, Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Forum, who helped organize the picket, told EurasiaNet, “We are wherever they are,” referencing the AUCC meeting. “This [picketing] will not stop. We will be dogging them until the Uzbek government allows a high-level International Labor Organization delegation to enter Uzbekistan, and we will keep demanding accountability until the practice of forced child labor ceases.”

Tashkent has not permitted the ILO to enter Uzbekistan to inspect the cotton fields during the harvest, and activists remain concern about numerous reports of student labor used this year, with children as young as 10 bussed to the fields. UNICEF has been doing a limited amount of observation, but has cautioned that this is not a substitute for the ILO’s formal labor rights monitoring, EurasiaNet reported.

On their website notice of the meeting, the AUCC said that recent positive developments in US-Uzbek bilateral relations had been cause for expanding their annual meeting — a likely reference to the waiver approved in the Senate Appropriations Committee and increasing engagement by the US with Uzbekistan for the sake of the Northern Distribution Network supporting the war in Afghanistan.

After the demonstration was publicized, the AUCC removed the detailed agenda from their website, but it can still be viewed here.

GM has been doing business for years in Uzbekistan and plans to open a new $521 million plant later this fall. Labor activists are concerned about reports that workers from some GM shops have allegedly been sent on “vacation,” enabling them to be forcibly mobilized for the cotton harvest by the Uzbek government.

This article originally appeared on the blog Choihona at EurasiaNet.

Due to the positive developments during the recent Annual Bilateral Consultations between the Governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek Government has decided to substantially increase its level of participation at the AUCC Annual Business Forum. The Uzbek delegation to the Republic of Uzbekistan will be led and represented by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Elyor Ganiev, who will attend the events organized by the AUCC and its members.

The AUCC provided an upbeat perspective on its own role and the need to keep moving:

The AUCC members hope that the U.S. – Uzbekistan Annual Business Forum will strengthen our countries’ understanding of the urgency and importance to engage more at the commercial, political and other levels. As they often say it in the East: Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of only standing still. The AUCC members are confident that our nations dialogue on furthering bilateral cooperation will continue and the AUCC stands ready to be used as an impetus and a vehicle for letting it grow.

What followed then on the same page — last week — was a detailed agenda for the September 28 meeting and a list of all the speakers and their topics.

Evidently after learning of a planned picket by labor and human rights groups outside the venue, the AUCC removed the agenda from their website.

But you can still see partial evidence of it in the Google cache page preview:

Partial View of Agenda Removed from AUCC Website

…and we saved a copy (see below the fold).

PROGRAM

2011 U.S.-UZBEKISTAN ANNUAL BUSINESS FORUM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2011
HOTEL W, WASHINGTON DC, USA

9.15 AM
Registration and Breakfast

9.30 AM
American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce: Welcome Remarks
Carolyn B. Lamm, Chairman
American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce

9.40 AM
Republic of Uzbekistan: Welcome Remarks
Elyor Ganiev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan – Minister of Foreign Affairs

10.00 AM
United States of America: Welcome Remarks
Susan M. Elliott, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia
U.S. Department of State

10.15 AM
Report from the 2011 United States – Central Asia Trade and Investment Council Meeting
Jonathan Ward, Director for South and Central Asia
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

10.30 AM
U.S. Government Resources for Doing Business
Danica Starks, Senior Caucasus and Central Asia Policy Advisor
Office of Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, International Trade Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce

10.45 AM
Coffee Break

11.00 AM – 12.00 PM
INVESTING IN UZBEKISTAN: INDUSTRY CASE STUDIES AND SUCCESS STORY
Moderated by Shukhrat Vafaev, Managing Director
Fund for Reconstruction and Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan

11.00 AM
Prospects for Developing Uzbekistan – American Investment Cooperation and Navoi Free Industrial Economic Zone: Opportunities to Produce High-Tech Products for Exports
Davron Dadakhanov, Head of the Department
Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade

11.15 AM
Uzbek Oil and Gas Sector: Prospects for Bilateral Cooperation
Djurabek Mirzamakhmudov, Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate
Uzbekneftegas National Holding Company (Uzbek Oil and Gas)

11.30 PM

Presentation by the Main Sponsor of the Event
NUKEM and NMMC: Reliable Supply of Uranium to Western Markets for 19 years
Tim McGraw, Executive Vice-President
NUKEM, Inc.

11.45 PM
Uzbek Chemical Industry: Prospects for Bilateral Cooperation
Khamidilla Shermatov, Chairman
UzChimProm State Company (Uzbek Chemical Industry)

12.00 PM
Lunch

1.00 PM – 2.15 PM
AUCC MEMBERS: U.S BUSINESSES AT THE FOREFRONT OF PROMOTING BILATERAL TRADE AND INVESTMENTS
Moderated by Tim McGraw, AUCC President

1.00 PM
CNH in Uzbekistan
Stuart Campbell, Business Director
Case New Holland

1.15 PM
GE’s Perspective on Doing Business in Uzbekistan
George A. Pickart , Director of Global Government Relations for GE Energy
General Electric Company

1.30 PM
Caterpillar and Zeppelin; Reliable Partners for Growing Uzbekistan’s Economy
Tom Moran, Consultant
Zeppelin International AG

1.45 PM
Uzbekistan and Honeywell: 20+ Years of Partnership
Art Simonetti, Vice President
Honeywell

2.00 PM
GM Uzbekistan: A Partnership For Success
Arturo Elias, VP International Government Relations & Public Policy
General Motors

2.15
Coffee Break

2.30 PM – 3.45 PM
UZBEK, U.S. & INTERNATIONAL BANKING, FINANCIAL AND POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS: ECONOMY, BANKING, ENERGY AND SECURITY
Moderated by Dr. S. Frederick Starr. Co-moderated by Tim McGraw, AUCC President

2.30 PM
The Three Poles of Uzbek-American Relations and Where They Are Pointing
Dr. S. Frederick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center
Johns Hopkins University

2.45 PM
Uzbekistan at 20: A Time for New Approaches
Dr. Martha Olcott
Senior Associate
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

3.00 PM
Economic Outlook for the Central Asia Region, Including Uzbekistan
David Owen, Deputy Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, International Monetary Fund

3.15 PM
Banking and Financial Sector of the Republic of Uzbekistan: How the Fund Can Help U.S. Investors
Shukhrat Vafaev, Managing Director

Fund for Reconstruction and Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan
3.30 PM

Development Opportunities and Challenges for Middle Income Economies
Takuya Kamata
Country Manager, Uzbekistan
The World Bank

3.45 PM
Conclusion & Discussion

4.00 PM
End of the Annual Business Forum

6.30PM
Gala Reception hosted by the Uzbek Embassy
1746 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20036

***

Susan Elliott, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central And South Asia, was schedule to speak, (although was not listed on the public schedule today at State).