UZBEK PRESIDENT PLANTS SEEDS OF CAPITALISM IN SEMI-ARID SOIL.

Addressing a meeting of Uzbekistan’s Interdepartmental Council for Economic Reforms in the presence of international investors and bankers, President Islam Karimov called for greater efforts to reverse Soviet-era popular attitudes of suspicion toward private wealth and to awaken a sense of property ownership among the populace. State policies must encourage the formation of "a middle class of property owners as the foundation of the state… The state has an obligation to protect private wealth. Prosperous citizens make for a prosperous state… Let them increase their capital, we will support this," Karimov urged. (Narodnoye slovo (Tashkent), February 8)

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