UZBEKISTAN BUSINESS UPDATE.

President Islam Karimov conferred yesterday in Tashkent with South Korea’s Daewoo corporation president Kim-U-Jong on the company’s massive involvement in Uzbekistan. The corporation recently commissioned the first stage of the Uz-Daewoo joint venture, Central Asia’s largest automobile-manufacturing firm, located in Asaka, Andijon region (Ferghana Valley). Built in less than two years at a cost of $660 million, and using Japanese and German equipment, the main plant is being expanded toward a production capacity of 200,000 passenger cars and minibuses annually, mainly for export to Central Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Also in Andijon region, Uz-Daewoo is currently building at an accelerated pace five plants for automobile components. Daewoo has recently agreed with the Uzbek side to expand a telecommunications joint venture in Urgench, Horezm region, and is set to open the joint venture Uz-Daewoo Bank.

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