Ingliz tili I fakulteti

Overview of Resources

Uzbekistan’s mineral resources include petroleum, natural gas, gold, silver, uranium, molybdenum, tungsten, coal, copper, zinc and lead. Uranium, copper and gold are the country’s chief minerals. The country has mineral reserves amounting to more than 1800 in number.

In 2010, the country’s mining sector was affected due to decrease in the production of minerals. This decrease was mainly because of insufficient foreign investments, lack of infrastructure and remote location.

Metals

In 2010, the Almalyk mining and metallurgical complex (AlmalykGMK ) was the only copper production company in Uzbekistan. The mining of copper in Uzbekistan takes place in the Sary-Cheku and Kalmakyr deposits. Besides mining of copper, the Almalyk GMK is also involved in the mining and processing of lead-zinc-barite ores obtained from the Uch-Kulach deposit in JizzaxViloyati. In 2010, about 20% of gold and 90% of silver was produced by Uzbekistan’s Almalyk GMK.

The Navoi mining and metallurgical complex and the Almalyk GMK were the chief gold producers in Uzbekistan in 2010. The Muruntau gold deposit in Central Qizilqumis known for its low extraction costs and superior quality ores. The Tamdybulak gold deposit, in the north of Muruntau, is another significant gold deposit in the country. In 2010, the chief gold reserves in Uzbekistan totaled to about 5,300 Mt.

Uzbekistan had 171 discovered natural gas and oil fields. The country’s vast hydrocarbon resources prevented its dependence on energy supply from foreign sources. Gas condensate was produced by 17 of the country’s natural gas and oil fields and oil was produced by 51 of Uzbekistan’s natural gas and oil fields.

Since 2003, the country experienced a major decline in its production of oil due to lack of upgraded production equipment that lead to a depletion of some of the country’s oil producing fields. In 2010, Uzbekistan had 52 natural gas fields located at 12 of the country’s chief deposits that were located in the Central Ustyurt plateau and on the Uzbek side of the Amu Darya basin. Almost 80% of the gas produced in Uzbekistan is utilized by the country’s heating and electricity production sectors.

In 2010, about 24% of gas produced in Uzbekistan was exported to Tajikistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

The monopoly rights for carrying out mining and extraction operations of uranium were owned by the Navoi mining and metallurgical complex. The mineral base at the Navoi GMK comprised 20 uranium deposits.

In 2010, the Boztaus plateau had uranium reserves that amounted to 5,500 t. Uranium exploration in this plateau was carried out by the Chinese company, Uz-China Uran.

Uzbekistan has also made efforts to modernize the Navoi and Almalyk GMKs and speed up its gold and copper production operations. The government intends to develop joint ventures with Russian and Asian companies as part of their initiatives to improve the country’s mineral and mining sectors.

One of the priority directions of agriculture development - an important sector of the economy of Uzbekistan is the saturation of the domestic food market, the achievement of self-sufficiency in production and food security fields. Effective implementation of these tasks will allow solving such pressing social issues as the employment of the population, their well-being, urban and rural development.

Uzbekistan’s agricultural policy has undergone significant changes during the years of independence. The state’s agricultural enterprises and collective sectors were abolished, farmers were established, and have implemented advanced technology in the absence of command management. It allowed diversifying the agricultural sector, developing animal husbandry, poultry farming, fish farming, horticulture, gardening and beekeeping.

More than 67,800 farms currently operate in the country. Their activities are regulated by the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On the farm” and the Presidential Decree “On measures for further improving the organization of activities and development of farming in Uzbekistan”.

Our country has developed more than 17 500 farms and created over 250 thousand new jobs. The largest numbers of farms are established in Tashkent, Jizzakh, Namangan, Samarkand, Kashkadarya, Ferghana, Andijan regions and Karakalpakstan.

Real help for the farmers was the introduction of the system of preferential crediting of agricultural projects and expanding service networks in rural areas through the supply of fuel and lubricants, biological and chemical fertilizers, plant protection products, seeds and others.

Stable growth of the agricultural sector is marked in the country since the late 90s, constituting an annual 6-7%. The volume of agricultural products has been increased by more than twice during these years. This, in turn, allowed saturating the market and increasing several times the consumption of basic foodstuffs. For example, 12,592million tons of vegetables were grown in 2014, including potatoes, 1,85 million tons of melons, 1,556 million tons of grapes, 2,731 million tons of fruit.

The average yield of wheat reached 55 quintals per hectare in the country; it was 60-77 quintals per hectare in some areas, which is a great success of our farmers. Cotton growers of the country made invaluable contribution to the replenishment of our country’s treasury harvested more than 3 million 350 thousand tons of raw sugar. Total volume of agricultural production had increased by almost 7% in 2015.

High yields was provided mainly by the intensification of agricultural production, improve the selection and implementation of recognized varieties of cotton and cereal crops, the development of modern agricultural technologies.

Along with this, high quality structural changes in agriculture are expected. In particular, gradual reduction of the volume of production and procurement of raw cotton from 3 million 350 thousand tons to 3 million tons is planned. It will free up about 170,500 hectares of irrigated land where cotton yield does not exceed 12-15 quintals per hectare, while yields in the country an average is of 26,1 quintals per hectare. As a result, redundant cotton fields will be sowing and planting of fruit and vegetables.

The final meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan noted that it is planned to bring the production volumes of cereal crops up to 8,5 million tons with an increase of 16,4 percent by 2021, increase potato production by 35 percent, other vegetables by 30 percent, and fruits grapes by 21,5 percent, meat by 26,2 percent, milk by 47,3 percent, eggs by 74.5 percent, fish at 2,5 times. At the same time the volume of exports of these types of food will significantly increase.

Increasing productivity of agricultural crops highlights the further industrialization of agriculture and processing of this raw material base, establishment of appropriate infrastructure to ensure the preservation of quality of the harvest. Due to the selfless work of all the workers in the village 230 enterprises were built and refurbished in the industrial processing of agricultural products, commissioned 114 new cold stores with a capacity of 77,800 tons in 2015. Thus, the total capacity of storage of fruits and vegetables increased up to 832 thousand tons. It helps to ensure the population on a regular basis in agricultural products, increase their exports and maintain price stability.

However, special attention is paid to rural workers’ welfare, creation of favorable living conditions that meet the modern requirements, improve the quality of housing and communal services.

As a result of the implementation of the State Program for the construction of rural individual housing on standard projects for 2009 - 2013 years, 1248 new complex of built-up residential areas were created in 159 rural areas, which built more than 33,5 thousand modern and comfortable individual houses on an area of more than 4,6 million sq meters. 1677 km of water supply networks are put into operation, 1,039 km of electric grids, 1346 km of gas supply networks and 981 km of roads, as well as more than a thousand objects of social and market infrastructure.

Implementation of these and other projects in the village, of course, will enhance the welfare of the population, and the result will be further development of agriculture and growth of productivity in the area.

Note: In 2018, Uzbekistan exported US$ 1 billion dollars of food products (an increase by 25.3%), with the CIS countries accounting for 730 million dollars.