Tag Archives: MTS

Mars to Pluck GooGoosha from Goo Goo Muck?

22 Nov

GooGoosha has found herself increasingly in the goo goo muck of late as the end game looks increasingly nigh in the first major battle of the war of succession in Uzbekistan.

With her empire crumbling in recent weeks and criminal cases swirling around her, the singer cum jewellery designer cum diplomat may want to consider alternatives to rotting in an Uzbek jail.

Her options may be limited, though. She’s being pursued in Europe in fraud cases, has issues in Russia over the shutting down of MTS in Uzbekistan. America is not keen  – she has history there involving kidnapping allegations going back to 2002.

But help could be at hand from an unexpected source as Mars announced it would be willing to offer sanctuary to the troubled princess.

The Martian authorities told Kazaxia that on the red planet she would be immune from prosecution and free to continue her singing career and charitable work without interference.

Exile on the red planet may indeed be preferable to spending time in one of her father’s torture complexes such as the horrific Jaslyk prison camp.

 

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Uzbekistan: Land of Economic Opportunity

2 Oct

Lord Venal is back from his long summer holiday and has some investment advice for Kazaxia’s readers

Uzbekistan, often seen as a basket case economy by many observers, would seem to be the new promised land of economic opportunity, if a thought-provoking piece on Jamestown is to be believed.

Richard Weitz comments on moves taking place to make Uzbekistan an investor’s dream as the government strives to diversify the economy and make the country an attractive place to do business in.

The building formerly known as Bankland, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

He rightly points out that the role of cotton in the Uzbek economy is now lessening in favour of other industries. One sector that could prove interesting to investors  is the gold industry.  Since Britain’s Oxus Gold’s interests in a mine in Uzbekistan were handed over to its Uzbek partners in 2011 there has been a significant gap in the market for foreign investors to fill.

Opportunities abound in telecoms

The telecoms sector is another booming one in Uzbekistan. With the recent court cases opened against Russia’s MTS by the authorities in Tashkent, there should be plenty of takers for the company which was once the country’s largest operator.

One problem highlighted by Weitz is potential labour shortages in Uzbekistan with unemployment at a very low 1.3% according to the International Labor Organization. The Uzbeks have found a way around this thorny issue by sending school children and teachers  along with, university students and lecturers to help out with the cotton harvest.

Weitz cites ‘experts’ who feel that the country should relinquish ‘self-censorship’ in the media to allow information to flow freely and to re-establish currency conversion instead of the current system which sees Uzbek citizens having to go to the black market to get their hands on hard currency at extortionate rates.

With the stability offered by Islam Karimov, at the helm for more than 20 years,  Uzbekistan is indeed the land of economic opportunity for foreign investors.

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