Dear friends!

It is a great pleasure for me these exciting minutes to congratulate you sincerely and wholeheartedly with the coming New Year, and, using this opportunity, to express my sincere respect to all of you.

The year 2008 is ending. It has to be said that this year in general was not easy for our country. We had to solve a lot of various problems this year. Those were water shortages and dry season, which was a serious challenge for the rural workers; those were other difficult tasks, which had to be solved in various spheres of economy and our day-to-day life.

A lot of efforts and attention was paid and is being paid today to prevent and soften the possible consequences of the 2008 world financial crisis, to preserve the stable rates of the growth of the economy and our citizens’ well-being.

Despite all these problems and hardships, we managed to do a lot over the past period on the way of progressive development of the economy and improvement of the quality of life of our people.

It is enough to say that in the past two years the GDP growth rates were above 9 percent, the average salary, pensions and stipends increased two times, and the incomes of the rural populations have notably grown.

We are glad to see the growing diversity and abundance of the goods in the stores and markets, the prices staying within the acceptable limits, the scale of construction and modernization of industrial facilities, objects of social sphere, the daily changing look of our cities and villages, the general look of our country.

I am convinced that, summing up what has been done, all of us clearly understands that everything we achieved in the past period was reached, in the first place, thanks to the self-sacrificing and tireless work of our people, despite their nationality, faith and belief, their strong confidence in their future, preservation of peace and stability, international and civil consent present in the society.

Secondly, due to gradual implementation of the well-developed policy of reforms and democratic renewal of the country, steady progress on the way of liberalization of the political and legal system, forming the free economy and civil institutes.

Thirdly, this is the result of the great attention that we have paid fro the first days of independence to our young people, our children, their harmonious and full-fledged development in the spirit of national and universal values.

The proclamation of the year 2008 as the Year of Youth became a really strong impulse in realization of the young people’s potential and implementation of the Nationwide program of personnel training, creation in the country of the necessary conditions to make the graduates of our universities and newly-built colleges and lyceums the decisive force that is able to take the responsibility for the renewal of our society and the country’s future.

The fourth and probably most important factor of our progress is that as our life is changing, our people are also changing, as is their world-view and attitude towards life, towards the results of their work, their participation in what is taking place around them, their political and public activity, their civil consciousness and responsibility.

Using this opportunity, my dear compatriots, I consider it my duty to express to all of you the worlds of sincere gratitude and respect for your self-sacrificing work, for everything you do to overcome problems and hardships on your way, for the sake of the present and the future of our country and its prosperity.

Dear friends!

There is no doubt that each of us links the dearest dreams, sincere desire to live better and fuller realize one’s abilities and possibilities with the coming year 2009.

On the eve of the year 2009, we have all reasons to say that the new year for Uzbekistan will be the year of progressive development and modernization of the country, the year of continuation and deepening of the started reforms and transformations, the year of implementation of the anti-crisis programs and, in the first place, of the technical and technological re-equipment, diversification and stimulation of the production, as well as adjustment of the salaries, pensions, stipends, allowances, growth of incomes and the living level of the population.

We proclaimed 2009 as the Year of Rural Development and Improvement. The main goals we set before us are implementation of the priority tasks related firstly to further improvement of the rural infrastructure, construction and renewal of housing, roads and communications, improvement of the provision of the population with drinking water, natural gas, issues of protection of the people’s health, strengthening the educational system - in short, raising the quality of life in the rural areas.

The construction and forming in rural areas of small compact enterprises equipped with modern technologies, development of the service sector, employment on this basis of the rural population, mainly youth, support of the farming movement and the interests of the middle class - owners, entrepreneurs and businessmen - acquire the biggest importance.

All these planned wide-scale transformations and deep changes, which come out of the proclamation of 2009 as the Year of Rural Development and Improvement, lead, in my opinion, to the very simple and clear idea: the rural development means abundance on our tables and growth of the quality of our life.

In the end, the reliable and stable basis for food security and growth of our people’s well-being will be created, and the look of our country will improve.

My dear compatriots!

Let me once again wholeheartedly congratulate all of you with the coming New Year 2009!

May the New Year bring kindness and prosperity, happiness and much joy in your families!

May the peace and tranquility rule in our homes and on our land, and clear sky be above our Motherland!

I wish you health, successes and luck to all of you in the New Year!

Happy New Year!

Islam Karimov, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan