UZBEKISTAN COUNTRY REVIEW Table of Contents
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2021 UZBEKISTAN COUNTRY REVIEW https://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 3 Uzbekistan 4 Asia and the Pacific 5 Chapter 2 7 Political Overview 7 History 8 Political Conditions 10 Political Risk Index 26 Political Stability 40 Freedom Rankings 56 ⇑ 58 ⇓ 58 ⇓ 59 ⇓ 59 Human Rights 69 Government Functions 73 Government Structure 74 Principal Government Officials 79 Leader Biography 81 Leader Biography 81 Foreign Relations 83 National Security 88 Defense Forces 91 Chapter 3 94 Economic Overview 94 Economic Overview 95 Nominal GDP and Components 99 Population and GDP Per Capita 100 Real GDP and Inflation 101 Government Spending and Taxation 102 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 103 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 104 Data in US Dollars 105 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 106 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 107 World Energy Price Summary 108 CO2 Emissions 109 Agriculture Consumption and Production 110 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 112 Metals Consumption and Production 113 World Metals Pricing Summary 115 Economic Performance Index 116 Chapter 4 129 Investment Overview 129 Foreign Investment Climate 130 Foreign Investment Index 135 Corruption Perceptions Index 148 Competitiveness Ranking 161 Taxation 170 Stock Market 171 Chapter 5 172 Social Overview 172 People 173 Human Development Index 174 Life Satisfaction Index 178 Happy Planet Index 190 Status of Women 200 Global Gender Gap Index 202 Culture and Arts 213 Etiquette 213 Travel Information 216 Diseases/Health Data 225 Chapter 6 236 Environmental Overview 236 Environmental Issues 237 Environmental Policy 238 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 239 Global Environmental Snapshot 251 Global Environmental Concepts 262 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 276 Appendices 300 Bibliography 301 Uzbekistan Chapter 1 Country Overview Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 1 of 314 pages Uzbekistan Country Overview UZBEKISTAN Uzbekistan is located in the heart of Central Asia on the ancient Great Silk Road between Europe and Asia. The area had been conquered by the Turks, the armies of Alexander the Great, the Arabs, and the Mongols, before it was annexed by Russia in the late 19th century as part of the region then known as Turkestan. Uzbekistan became a republic within the Soviet Union in 1924, and gained independent in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country's political system is highly authoritarian, and the media is tightly controlled by the state. With a population of around 27.5 million, Uzbekistan is the most populous country in Central Asia. The country has a strong agricultural base and is one of the world’s largest producers of cotton. It is also endowed with abundant natural resources, including hydrocarbons, gold, copper, and uranium. Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 2 of 314 pages Uzbekistan Key Data Key Data Region: Central Asia Population: 30565412 Mostly midlatitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters, semiarid Climate: grassland in east Uzbek (74%) Russian (14.2%) Languages: Tajik (4.4%) Other (7.1%) Currency: sum (UKS) Holiday: Independence Day is 1 September (1991), Constitution Day is 8 December Area Total: 447400 Area Land: 425400 Coast Line: 0 Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 3 of 314 pages Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Country Map Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 4 of 314 pages Uzbekistan Asia and the Pacific Regional Map Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 5 of 314 pages Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 6 of 314 pages Uzbekistan Chapter 2 Political Overview Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 7 of 314 pages Uzbekistan History The history of the Uzbeks and their homeland is closely tied to that of Turkestan, an ancient territory stretching from the Caspian Sea in the west, and extending into China and Afghanistan in the east. Turkestan encompassed most of the areas of the present-day Turkmen; the Uzbek, Tajik, and Kyrgyz Republics; and the southern portion of the Kazakh Republic. In the centuries before the current era, people of Persian heritage populated Turkestan and endured successive waves of invaders. In the sixth century B.C.E., Turkestan, for the most part, belonged to the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great invaded Turkestan in the fourth century B.C.E., and the Huns overran the area in the fifth century C.E. Arabs conquered Turkestan in the seventh century C.E. and introduced the Islamic religion and culture. Another series of invasions by predominantly Turkic peoples began at the end of the 10th century and continued into the 13th century when the great Mongol invasion swept the area. The Mongol invaders were soon assimilated by the Turkic population and adopted their language, culture and religion. In the beginning of the 16th century, Turkestan was conquered by yet another wave of Turkic nomads, the Uzbeks. The Uzbeks, whose name derives from Uzbek Khan, the ruler of the Mongols at the beginning of the 14th century, were a mixture of Turkic tribes within the Mongol Empire. The center of the Uzbek state became the city of Bukhara. Subsequently, the independent Uzbek khanates of Khiva and Kokand evolved. The khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand inherited aspects of the Iranian, Turkic and Arabic civilizations. Their populations were mostly Uzbek, but considerable numbers of Tajiks, Turkmens and Kyrgyz were also resident. By the 18th century, the khans of Khiva, Bukhara and Kokand had extended their control over the innumerable independent tribal kingdoms and ruled central Turkestan. The process of consolidation, however, was not complete; many peripheral areas in Turkestan remained almost totally independent of, or in rebellion against, one or another of the three khanates. Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 8 of 314 pages Uzbekistan In the vast steppes and deserts in the north, the Kazakhs continued their traditional way of life, grazing their herds. The nomadic Turkmen roamed the wide stretches of pastureland to the west; the Kyrgyz made their home in the mountainous valleys in the east. The Tajiks maintained their established lifestyle in the southeast, in the highlands north of the Hindu Kush. Although Peter the Great attempted the first Russian invasion of Turkestan in the beginning of the 18th century, systematic Russian penetration of Turkestan was undertaken only in the mid-19th century. By the end of the 19th century, the khanates of Bukhara and Khiva, greatly reduced in size, had become vassal states of the Russian Empire. The rest of the territory and the entire territory of Kokand were incorporated into Russian Turkestan, which was divided into five provinces and presided over by a Russian governor general. Turkestan, together with the four provinces of Kazakhstan, constituted what came to be known as Russian Central Asia (subsequently Soviet Central Asia). In spite of czarist tolerance of the Muslim religion and customs, Russian conquest of Turkestan had an immediate impact on some of the indigenous culture and society. Early in the 20th century, economic development came to Turkestan; new towns sprang up; cotton grew where once nomads had grazed their herds; and railroads linked Turkestan with markets in Russia. The nomadic Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Turkmen were especially resentful of these changes. In 1916, when the Russian government ended its exemption of Muslims from military service, much of Russian Central Asia rose in a general revolt against Russian rule. A year later, in November 1917, the Bolsheviks established Soviet power in the city of Tashkent. In April 1918, they proclaimed the Turkestan Autonomous Republic. The great mass of the Muslim population, however, took no part in these events. Only after the Bolsheviks attacked the Muslim religion, intervened directly in native society and culture, and engaged in armed seizure of food did the indigenous population offer fierce resistance in a national and holy war against the Soviet regime, known as the Basmachi Rebellion. The autonomous Soviet republics of Khorzem (formerly Khiva) and Bukhara were established in 1920 and incorporated into the Soviet Union. In 1924 and 1925, the entire Soviet Central Asian territory was reorganized by an act known as the national delimitation process in Central Asia. The Turkestan Autonomous Republic was abolished and divided along ethnic and linguistic lines into the Uzbek and Turkmen union republics, the Tajik Autonomous Republic within the Uzbek Republic, and the Kyrgyz Autonomous Republic and the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast within the Russian Republic. At the same time, the Kazakh Autonomous Republic within the Russian Republic was also established. The Tajik Autonomous Republic became a union republic in 1929, and the Kyrgyz Autonomous Uzbekistan Review 2021 Page 9 of 314 pages Uzbekistan Republic became a union republic in 1936. The Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast became an autonomous republic in 1932, and was transferred to the Uzbek Republic in 1936. The same year, the Kazakh Autonomous Republic was transformed into a union republic. Meanwhile, the Uzbek Republic, although technically autonomous, remained under the control of the Communist Party. Beginning in the 1930s, Uzbekistan suffered from a number of political purges, especially among the intelligentsia and political leadership, at the hands of the communist authorities. The death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953 brought some degree of a reprieve, and by the mid-1950s, the Uzbek Republic began to re-institute contact with the outside world. A further relaxation of media and socio-political