U.S. MAY EXPAND INVESTMENTS IN UZBEKISTAN.

U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Stanley Escudero said at a Peace Corps oath-taking ceremony in Tashkent that U.S. companies and lending agencies currently consider investments worth more than $1 billion in Uzbekistan’s oil and gas sector. (18) The new infusion amount would supplement recent U.S. investments, some backed by Eximbank guarantees, in infrastructure projects and processing industry in Uzbekistan. The country, whose economic modernization entails daunting challenges and costs, has seen a surge of U.S., Japanese, and West European investment and International Monetary Fund/World Bank lending this year facilitated by the economic reform program launched in 1994.

Turkmenistan Invites Foreign Investment, Eyes Transcontinental Railroad.