“Currently, steady growth rates are being ensured in Khorezm region just like it has been the case around the nation; the achievements have been rather impressive,” Uzbekistan’s leader said.

“This has been seen in the remarkable accomplishments being made across sectors by the populace in this part of the country – in manufacturing and construction industries, agriculture, healthcare, science, education, culture and sports.”

The economy of the region, projected to grow up to nine percent this year, has been advancing dynamically.

In excess of twenty-one billion soums has been invested in the twenty-two bankrupt enterprises across the province to encourage the production of competitive goods. About two thousand jobs have been restored as a result of these efforts. 12 such entities, including Hazarasp Spinning Mill, Unikho joint venture, Hazorasp Gilamlari, have undergone modernization of production capacities.

Along with statements cheering the regional economic growth rates and relevant indicators, it was stressed during the session that the share of manufacturing industry in the gross regional product lags behind those manifest around the country.

It is this very sector, according to President Karimov, that is rather critical in promoting the Khorezm oasis up to the ranks of advanced provinces, in furthering the goals set, securing employment and income growth among the people, shoring up production rates and transforming the appearance of the region.

The agricultural sector has produced a rich harvest in this season, as well. The head of our state insisted that the interests of farmers be taken into account in drawing up contracts. Today, farmers understand well that cotton yields considerable income, yet one ought to reckon with faltering prices in world markets.

The state should promote the interests of the farmer. Likewise, the farmer must not overlook the interests of the state, Islam Karimov suggested.

It has been underlined at the session that to address these objectives, it is time for the government to elaborate and implement a comprehensive and well-thought-out program with an eye to the peculiarities and capacities of the Khorezm oasis.

Such a white paper would be dedicated to bolstering not merely textile industry, but also mechanical engineering, construction materials production, reprocessing sector, along with the establishment of joint ventures in cooperation with businesses from advanced nations.

Worth noting is the 1.6 times increase – as compared to figures of the year 2000 – in the number of small business and private entrepreneurship entities operating currently in Khorezm region. This sector’s share in the gross regional product accounts for 60.5 percent.

In order to provide financial support for small businesses, the commercial banks have assigned loans worth 172 billion soums this year – a 3.5 times growth within the last five years.

In the nine months of the current year, more than forty-seven thousand new jobs were created, 60 percent of which has covered small business and private entrepreneurship that, in turn, employs about 80 percent of working population. The figures are quite suggestive of the economic as much as the keen social significance assigned for this sector, underlined again during the recent international conference in Tashkent that addressed the role of small business and private entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan’s socio-economic policy.

Tourism is one of important sectors in Khorezm region, President Islam Karimov said. Wide-ranging efforts have been in progress to boost tourism infrastructure, including that of a chain of compact hotels in the cities of Urgench and Khiva. The efforts have been directed also at reinforcing the economic and technical capacities of facilities offering services to tourists.

Thanks to the nearly fourfold increase in the number of hotels within the last ten years and the endeavors designed to foster the creation of travel agents, the tourist inflow into Khorezm region has thrived more than threefold. Meanwhile, much has yet to be done on this front, as it was noted at the session.

The startup of the 341-kilometer-long Navoi-Uchkuduk-SultanUvaistag-Nukus railway has cardinally transformed the appearance of the country’s northernmost regions.

Expounding on issues pertinent to the farmer movement, President Islam Karimov appreciated the fact that Khorezm farmers have harvested more than 132 thousand tons of grain this year, over-fulfilled contract commitments and generated about 70 billion soums of income. The region’s cotton growers have been working hard to harvest as much as 258 thousand tons of crop.

There are numerous factors that facilitate a rich harvest in agriculture. According to the head of our state, it is critical that we place special emphasis on bolstering the fertility of soil and improving the meliorative state of land and the irrigation system. Within the program approved in this regard, around eighty billion soums of funds from national budget have been allocated to Khorezm region within the last five years. These moneys have helped build and reconstruct 220 kilometers of collector and drainage networks, while 6.5 thousand kilometers of networks have undergone overhaul and restoration works. As a result, meliorative capacities of 170 thousand hectares of irrigated lands across the province have been uplifted.

Human interests have from the very first days of independence defined the essence and content of all reforms and endeavors underway in Uzbekistan, the head of state put it. The practical effects of this have been manifest also in Khorezm region, among other corners of the country.

To date, the real per capita incomes have grown 9.2 times compared to the year 2000, while the average salary increased 16.8 times for the same period. Pensions and social allowances have multiplied by 11 times. The mounting volumes of sales and popularity of modern cars manufactured in Uzbekistan among the local population is rather telling in this regard. Starting from 1996, the year when automobile production was launched in our country, the residents of Khorezm region have purchased in excess of sixty thousand cars and SUVs. Put it another way, two of every five families in this region currently own modern automobiles.

Consistent efforts are in progress in rural areas of the province to build residential quarters with standard-design houses. Within the last three years, 32 quarters have seen the construction of 1,160 homes in tandem with 43 kilometers of gas pipelines, 70 kilometers of water tubes, 30 km of power lines, 35 km of roads, as well as other infrastructure facilities. This year alone, 650 standard-design houses have been erected in twenty rural neighborhoods, waiting to be commissioned turnkey.

Nurturing a younger generation of comprehensively advanced individuals is the quintessential aspect of government policy in Uzbekistan. Today, according to President Islam Karimov, we have come to understand profoundly that only a modern- and independently-thinking, physically robust and spiritually sound youth is capable of continuing the undertakings started by us and move up to new levels. This is the very reason we believe this task is the pivotal condition and guarantor of modernization and rejuvenation process in the country, the further consolidation of its standing in the international arena, for securing a solid place among advanced democratic nations.

To attain these high goals and objectives, it is imperative that we promote healthy lifestyle, including physical culture and sports.

Currently, 88 percent of general schools in the region are outfitted with gyms, compared to the 63 percent back in 2003. As part of the program designed to boost children’s sports, eighty-five sporting facilities have been built and commissioned in the last three years. 80 percent of these bodies are erected in rural areas.

In this respect, the head of our state said he was proud of the youth soccer team of Uzbekistan who have won the high status of the champions of Asia, a continent populated by more than four billion people.

Owing to the encouraging conditions, 1,500 schoolchildren from Khorezm region have taken part in sporting competitions of nation-wide scale, and 140 kids attended international contests.

Some 96,300 young men and women in Khorezm region are currently pursuing knowledge and grasping modern vocations at the ninety-one academic lyceums and professional colleges.

The wide-scale construction and beautification works ongoing in the region are brightly manifest in the case of the administrative center of the province – Urgench. In line with modern urban planning requirements, according to the head of state, a reconstruction program has been worked out envisaging 112 billion soums for the renewal of Urgench. Similar efforts have been underway in the region’s other towns and villages, too.

The session agenda also included managerial issues. On the recommendation of President Islam Karimov, the acting hokim (governor) of Khorezm region Pulat R. Bobojonov has been elected hokim of Khorezm region.

Representatives of the general public, including farmers and students and faculty of education institutions, who took floor at the session, noted that the region’s residents would address the critical remarks and urgent recommendations of the head of state in their activities.

Later that day, President Islam Karimov traveled to the Istiqlol farming enterprise in Khonqa district and talked with local farmers. Uzbekistan’s leader enquired into the cotton harvesting time.

Headed by Hamza Jumaniyazov, this farming enterprise wields 67.6 hectares of land. Members of this entity have cultivated cotton on 48 hectares this year. In addition, fruits and vegetables as well as melons are grown in this farm along with livestock, poultry and bees. Many young people are employed in the sewing workshop.

“This year has proven pretty favorable for cotton growing. If one analyzes the accomplishments being made in the sphere, it becomes clear that transferring the lands to their genuine owners, the forming of the sense of property ownership in our farmers, the timely agriculture-technical campaigns, the creation of conditions and opportunities for productive work have been instrumental in our current successes,” said the leader of the country.

Today, the farmer movement is entering a new era in its development. The farmer should reprocess the goods he has harvested and drive the accelerated industrialization in rural areas. He ought to make his own input into promoting other production sectors, establishing services, encouraging the process of socio-economic advancement of regions, growth in the wellbeing of people, ensuring population employment, primarily the youth.

During the conversation with farmers it was noted that the thinking and outlook of people as well as their needs have been changing. Our hearts are overfilled with a sense of pride by the goal-mindedness, perseverance and the confident progression of our youth on the way to attaining noble achievements and inspiring successes.

President Islam Karimov reviewed the ongoing constructive and construction works designed to reconstruct downtown Urgench.