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#About_Uzbekistan

📢 About Uzbekistan: Transportation

The great obstacle to further development of markets for Uzbekistan’s copious truck gardening and fruit growing remains the antiquated means of distribution. Neither the surface nor air transport now available can efficiently or with adequate refrigeration handle the volume produced in Uzbekistan and needed by the Baltic states, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Old railways connect the republic’s major urban centres with other Central Asian republics and extend to Moscow and Siberia. Uzbekistan never had a domestic airline of its own until after independence in 1991, when former Soviet Aeroflot airplanes and their pilots were chartered to fly rather infrequently from such cities as Samarkand and Tashkent to nearby cities. Air service now connects Tashkent with London, New York, and other international cities.
Trucks transport most of the freight carried, and the roadways, like other facilities, require much repair—virtual reconstruction—and widening before they can support the modernizing economies that their builders once hoped to link with each other. The Great Uzbek Tashkent-Termiz Highway runs south almost to the border with Afghanistan. Termiz remains virtually a dead end in terms of trade, however, especially since the Soviet intervention (1979–89) in the Afghan War. A second road, the Zeravshan Highway, connects Samarkand with Chärjew, Turkmenistan, in the west. The Fergana Ring links the main settlements within the populous Fergana Valley.

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📢 About Uzbekistan: Trade

The leading exports from Uzbekistan consist largely of extracted natural resources or raw materials—cotton, natural gas, oil, coal, silk, fruit, and Karakul pelts. Some fresh produce reaches Moscow and other northern markets. Manufactured goods such as machines, cement, textiles, and fertilizer are also exported. Uzbekistan’s largest sources of imports are China, Russia, South Korea, and Kazakhstan. Its main export destinations are Switzerland, China, Turkey, and Kazakhstan.

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📢 About Uzbekistan: Industry

Uzbekistan is the main producer of machinery and heavy equipment in Central Asia. The republic manufactures machines and equipment for cotton cultivation, harvesting, and processing and for use in the textile industry, irrigation, and road construction. This emphasis on making machinery also makes ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy important. The first metallurgical plant began operation at Bekobod in 1946.
Light industry includes tea-packing plants and factories for garment making.

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📢 About Uzbekistan: Agriculture

Ample sunlight, mild winters of short duration, fertile irrigated soil, and good pastures make Uzbekistan suitable for cattle raising and the cultivation of cotton. Irrigation has fallen into disfavour owing to the depletion of the great rivers, and the construction of new irrigation systems has been prohibited or curtailed. Already existing grand canals include the Great Fergana, Northern Fergana, Southern Fergana, and Tashkent. Several large artificial lakes and reservoirs have been created on the Zeravshan and other rivers.
In addition to the high and stable cotton yield in this most northerly of the great cotton regions of the world, growers have raised silkworms systematically since the 4th century. The silkworms are fed mulberry leaves from the many trees planted along streets and ditches. The Fergana Valley is especially noted for silk production.
Varieties of melons, apricots, pomegranates, berries, apples, pears, cherries, and figs grow abundantly, as do vegetables such as carrots, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and greens. Uzbekistan’s grapes are made into wine or raisins or are eaten fresh. Fruits and vegetables are sold both in the bazaars of Tashkent, Samarkand, Fergana, and other localities and in trade with neighbouring states. Korean agriculturalists cultivate rice along the middle Syr Darya. Sheep are the principal livestock.

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📢 About Uzbekistan: Resources

The country’s resources include metallic ores; in the Olmaliq (Almalyk) mining belt in the Kurama Range, copper, zinc, lead, tungsten, and molybdenum are extracted. Uzbekistan possesses substantial reserves of natural gas, oil, and coal. The country consumes large amounts of its natural gas, and gas pipelines link its cities and stretch from Bukhara to the Ural region in Russia as well. Surveys show petroleum resources in the Fergana Valley (including major reserves in the Namangan area), in the vicinity of Bukhara, and in Karakalpakstan. The modern extraction of coal began to gain importance, especially in the Angren fields, only during World War II. Hydroelectric dams on the Syr Darya, the Naryn, and the Chirchiq rivers help augment the country’s nuclear-, coal-, and petroleum-powered generation of electricity.
Centuries-old rumours of extensive gold deposits in Uzbekistan evidently arose from a basis in fact. Rich polymetallic ores have been found in the Ohangaron (Akhangaran) field southeast of Tashkent. Miners there extract copper, some gold, lead, molybdenum, tungsten, and zinc. A plant for heat-leaching gold from low-grade ore was built in the mid-1990s by a subsidiary of the Newmont Mining Corporation in the Muruntau field in the Kyzylkum Desert of north-central Uzbekistan. It was intended to be a joint venture with the government, but Newmont Mining Corporation’s share was forfeited in a legal battle in 2007.
Uzbekistan requires greater water resources. By the early 1980s the government considered the shortage of water desperate. Officials in Moscow and Tashkent developed a plan to divert substantial amounts of water out of the Irtysh River far to the north into a pumped system that would aid in watering parts of lower Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. The project was killed, however, before it began, leaving Uzbekistan with chronic water shortages.

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📢 About Uzbekistan: People and Culture

Uzbekistan is a multinational country. The two main languages are Uzbek and Russian but you will also hear several other languages including Korean, English, German, Tajik and Turkish. Besides the Uzbek population, Uzbekistan contains many other nationalities, all with their own mode of life.
People in Uzbekistan wear different types of clothes. In villages you will observe women wearing traditional clothes like long variegated dresses and scarves. In cities they are less traditional and more modern.  Men wear pants more often than jeans. Shorts are worn rather rarely and usually only by people in the city.
Being a guest or inviting someone into your home is a big thing in Uzbekistan. People will often visit a friend or neighbor without a special reason. Uzbek people are known to be very hospitable and find it an honor to have a guest in their home. There are even special seating arrangements for guests. The eldest person or honored guest is usually invited to sit at the head of the table, away from the door. Young people or hosts sit by the door to act as “waiters.” They bring and take away dishes, pour tea and do other things.
Uzbekistan is also known for its national cuisine. Unlike their nomadic neighbors, the Uzbeks have been a settled civilization for centuries. Between the deserts and mountains, the oases and fertile valleys, they have cultivated grain and domesticated livestock. The resulting abundance of produce has allowed them to enrich their cuisine.
The seasons greatly influence the composition of national foods. In summer, fruits, vegetables and nuts are widely used in cooking. Fruits grow in abundance in Uzbekistan such as grapes, melons, apricots, pears, apples, cherries, pomegranates, lemons, figs and dates. Vegetables are also plentiful, such as eggplants, peppers, turnips, cucumbers and luscious tomatoes. There are also some lesser-known species of vegetables such as green radishes, yellow carrots, and dozens of pumpkin and squash varieties.
The Uzbeks prefer mutton to other kinds of meat; it is the main source of protein in the Uzbek diet. Beef and horsemeat are also eaten.
The wide choice of bread is a staple for the majority of the population. Round, unleavened break or leplyoshka/non is usually baked in a tandir (round ovens made of mud) and served with tea. The national bread is often sold on street corners. Some varieties are cooked with onion or meat while others are simply sprinkled with sesame seeds.
The most well-known Uzbek dish is plov or osh. It is cooked with fried meat, onions, carrots and rice. Sometimes raisins, barberries, chickpeas or other fruits are added.  Uzbeks are very proud of their skills to cook plov. A master plov chef cooks plov on an open flame, sometimes serving up to 1,000 people from a single cauldron on holidays or special occasions like weddings.
Tea is a reverent beverage in the finest Oriental traditions; it is the drink of hospitality. Tea is first served to guests and then to family members. Green tea is more popular in Uzbekistan than black but black is preferred in Tashkent.

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📢 About Uzbekistan: Economy

Uzbekistan is a dry, double landlocked country of which 11 percent consists of intensely cultivated, irrigated river valleys. More than 60 percent of its population lives in densely populated rural communities. Uzbekistan is the world’s second-largest cotton exporter and the fifth largest producer. The country relies heavily on cotton production as the major source of export earnings. Other major export earners include gold, natural gas and oil.

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