Tashkent cancels annual presentation with EBRD

Uzbek officials cancelled their country presentation during the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD], held on Monday in London, after the intergovernmental bank criticised Tashkent for not making sufficient improvements to the political and economic situation in the country during the past year. "This is the first time that Uzbekistan has not made a country presentation in our annual meetings. We do see that we need to work to get the dialogue [going] again, but now there are some difficulties," Jeff Hiday, head of media relations for the EBRD, told IRIN on Tuesday from London. Hiday explained that most countries make a country presentation in the EBRD annual meetings, which also include a formal meeting on governance and some seminars on different themes. But this year "Uzbekistan cancelled the country presentation", he said. The Uzbek officials' absence comes after the EBRD stated, on 6 April, that "after a year calling for improvements of the political and economic situation in Uzbekistan, the EBRD has concluded that there has been very limited progress and the Bank is no longer able to conduct business as usual." In 2003, during the annual meeting held in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, the Bank issued a report highlighting seven benchmarks that needed to be improved, calling for progress to be seen within a year. The benchmarks included greater political openness and freedom of the media, registration and free functioning of independent civil society groups, and implementation of the recommendations issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. "We are not happy with their progress so we will focus our activities on the private sector and some other activities that benefit the Uzbek people. The focus for this year will be a mix of a bit of macro business, a bit of banking sector and a bit of small and medium size enterprises," Hiday said, while emphasising that the EBRD is very interested in maintaining the dialogue with the government and maintaining its work in the country. "We want to take the same strategy for this year and we will continue our dialogue with them. Maybe the next year there is progress and we can extend our activities or it could be the other way, and there might be further restrictions," the bank official stated. Meanwhile, the Uzbek government regretted the EBRD decision of limiting its investments and argued that changes were taken during the past year both in terms of democratisation and economic reforms that were expected to give positive results. "We have stated many times that our government is aiming at democratic and market reforms based on an open economy. But how fast that will happen and when it will have tangible results is a matter of time," Ilkhom Zakirov, Uzbek Foreign Ministry spokesman, told IRIN from Tashkent recently. The EBRD, the biggest investor in Eastern and Central Asia, has invested US $640 million in Uzbekistan since the country achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The intergovernmental lender has had a lower level of commitments in recent years as a result of the country's unfavourable investment climate. Business volume in 2003 was $31 million.