UZBEK-U.S. CONVERSION COMMITTEE FORMED.

The U.S.-Uzbekistan Committee for Defense Industry Conversion held an organizing meeting in Tashkent yesterday. Uzbek prime minister Utkir Sultanov and U.S. assistant secretary of commerce Barry Carter signed documents on the joint committee’s working procedures and its goals of reorienting defense sector materiel and labor resources toward civilian production in Uzbekistan. The committee adopted a working plan focusing on metallurgical and aircraft industries and on oil and gas extraction. (Interfax, May 16)

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