The city of Jizzakh has become a symbol for the prestigious London Film Festival. On May 30th, 2023, at the fifth ECG Film Festival in London there was an award ceremony dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Maria Akhmedjanova – Shevel – an outstanding architect and creative artist of Uzbekistan. Maria Akhmedjanova – Shevel – […]
Constitutional referendum in Uzbekistan: a course to continue profound democratic reforms A national referendum on the law on the new Constitution will beheld in Uzbekistan on 30 April 2023. The updated Basic Law is intendedto consolidate the country’s strategic course for further reform of societyand the state, which has had a positive impact on its […]
Uzbekistan’s economy is going from strength to strength. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expects the country’s GDP to show 6.5% growth in 2023 – higher than the 4.9% forecast for the overall Central Asia region. One of the key actors that will support this growth is a new focus by president Shavkat […]
31 YEARS YOUNG UZBEKISTAN: SUSTAINABLE PROGRESS FOR FURTHER PROSPERITY On september 1, 2022 Uzbekistan celebrated the 31st Anniversary of its Independence. From the very beginning the nation has set an ambitious goal – to become a developed, sustainable, democratic state. In a relatively short period, profound structural and institutional transformations were carried out that laid […]
Sharaf Rashidov – Man and Politician Celebrating the 105th anniversary of his birth In the autumn of 2022 the 105th anniversary of the birth of Sharaf Rashidovich Rashidov will be celebrated. A famous statesman of Uzbekistan and the Soviet Union, he made a huge personal contribution to the economic and social development of Uzbekistan between […]
NEW UZBEKISTAN SEEKS CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS On May 20, 2022 the Constitutional Commission was established to develop proposals for constitutional amendments as part of a “New Uzbekistan” image refit. This Constitutional Commission is comprised of deputies and senators from all regions, representatives from various social strata, civil society institutions, leading lawyers, political scientists, and other […]
Revival of the Tashkent Film Festival In September 2021 Marat Akhmedjanov invited myself and two film related companions to represent the UK at the Tashkent Film Festival in Uzbekistan, a festival returning after a 24 year absence. Like a moth to a flame I was drawn to the event, as were my fellow travellers Oliver […]
After broad public discussions, Uzbekistan has adopted its five-year Development Strategy for 2022-2026. It consists of seven priority directions and one hundred goals Uzbekistan is willing to achieve within five years. This strategic document will serve Uzbekistan as a baseline for further reforms in all spheres. The Strategy foresees the implementation of various measures that […]
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how interconnected human health is with the environment, as well as with economic and social progress. We can no longer ignore the signals that nature itself sends us. Unfortunately, climate change is on the rise. In Central Asia, the average annual temperature over the past 30 years has increased by […]
OR 12 GW OF RENEWABLE POWER CAPACITY IN LESS THAN 10 YEARS Can it be possible for a country to go from zero to climate hero or 12 GW of solar and wind power in less than 10 years and at a very low cost? This is a daunting task for any country. But Uzbekistan, […]
From the beginning of the written history of humankind, Central Asia was at the crossroads of civilisations, cultures and development. Archaeological discoveries show that the first known cities and states were present here for more than five thousand years. Magnificent monuments, temples and government buildings, with the sophisticated structures, prove that this land was full […]
While relations go back over six hundred years, with an exchange of letters between King Henry IV of England and Amir Temur, the British Council has been supporting systemic education and cultural relations with the UK for the last quarter of a century, since the signing of formal bilateral agreement with Government of Uzbekistan in […]
The British Museum has announced that it is working closely with colleagues in the Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) under the Ministry of Culture, and the staff of the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in London. On 30th September 2020 the Museum signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ACDF and agreed to […]
International art lovers attending the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale were in for a treat. For the very first time in the history of this prestigious festival, Uzbekistan had a national pavilion, situated within the Arsenale. Titled “Mahalla: Urban Rural Living”, this 1:1 scale model of a house in a traditional Uzbek mahalla (neighbourhood) was curated […]
“I really want our society to be inclusive. I think we should start with culture because music and arts do not require interpretation. If we make culture inclusive and accessible, everything else will go by itself, God willing,” said Mirsaid Mukhotorov, a blind student of international law at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy. […]
Since its creation in 1753, the British Library – formerly the Library of the British Museum – has amassed more than 170 million collection items. A small portion of these are in Uzbek or Chagatai, or related to the territory of the contemporary Republic of Uzbekistan. Despite their small number, the 50-odd Turkic manuscripts from […]
Heading into the autumn of 2021, the revival of international tourism still looks some way off. But as flights resume, travel restrictions are lifted, and tourists regain confidence, we will start to see the sector’s recovery. Uzbekistan has been using this downtime to build upon the foundations it laid pre-COVID and prepare to realise its […]
Prior to 2020, Uzbekistan was one of the fastest growing travel destinations in the world, with the surge in visitors arriving beyond even the highest expectations of those within the Central Asia tourism scene. It was an exciting time to be creating product and leading sales of Uzbekistan holidays for a company organising tours for […]
250km/h, speed of Uzbekistan’s finest train, the Afrosiyob The early morning sun shone definitively through the dust-covered, weathered window pane, as our train trundled through a landscape of hillside foliage. We were on a journey from Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent towards the great Silk Road city of Kokand, now the perfect introduction to the Fergana Valley […]
The catastrophic breach of the dam earlier this year provides the perfect opportunity for the Uzbek government to learn from and improve its energy policy towards a sustainable future that goes hand in hand with economic reforms in the country. By Iain Watt, IGI Solutions, regional expert in water security Early in the morning of […]
INTERVIEW Zulkhumar Khamdamovna from 1994 till 2015 she worked as a teacher, from 2015 she began writing poetry and essays. The theme of her work is the knowledge of the truth of life. For 5 years (2015-2020) she wrote more than 70,000 lines of poetry, more than 2,000 sheets of essays. Books are her […]
In the modern world the idea of “how a wedding should look like” has changed and yet all we want for this day is for it to be perfect and remarkable. It does not matter what your nationality is or where you are from because in any county a bride and groom are extremely excited […]
Arrest, prison, GULag, suffering, and death – all are images that come to mind when we think of the Stalin era Great Purges of the 1930s. Solzhenitsyn’s GULag Archipelago and the memoirs of survivors document this period of a government’s war against its own people in heart-wrenching detail. It was a war fought so successfully […]
WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM OCA#35 SUMMER 2020 Interview with Michael Schena recorded by Saniya Seilkhanova Growing up in Plymouth, Massachusetts and later studying at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he pursued a degree in International Affairs, Michael Schena decided to pursue a career that would allow him travel and work. A regular visitor to […]
Last Sunday, Solidarity with Uzbekistan, a digital fundraising campaign benefited from yet another webinar to help raise money for the vulnerable people affected by COVID-19 lockdown in the country. An interesting lecture about the Savitsky Museum given by its former director Marinika Babanazarova was fully booked. Held at 3pm in London, the Zoom-session attracted over […]
Stories and reminders of Uzbekistan’s great scientists and scholars of the past can be found everywhere in the country. Travellers on the magnificent Tashkent subway, when stopping at the Kosmonavtlar station, can walk the length of the platform and view a gallery of those who built, influenced and pioneered the Soviet space program. In chronological […]
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This year marks the 100th anniversary since birth of Sharaf R. Rashidov, the first secretary of the Uzbek communist party (in office from 1959 until 1983). Rashidov was born on November the 6th 1917, the day before the Bolsheviks under Lenin seized power in Russia. His birthday seems symbolical as he would become the highest […]
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