The Dushanbe-based clothing factory “Guliston” has made its contribution to the preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The factory has recently sent a large consignment of sportswear with internationally known brand of Umbro to Russia.
“Guliston” has begun sewing sportswear under the Umbro brand, the factory director Dilshod Begov told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“We have been cooperating with foreign companies since last year and we have taken orders since the end of the last year,” Begov noted.
According to him, their main achievement was to receive permission to sew sportswear under the Umbro brand.
“Negotiations on this subject have been conducted for several months and we have managed to prove that our specialists can sew sportswear under the Umbro brand qualitatively in accordance with international standards and the demands of this company,” “Guliston” top manager noted.
Umbro is an English sportswear and football equipment supplier based in Manchester, England. Umbro designs, sources, and markets football-related apparel, footwear, and equipment. Its products are sold in over 90 countries worldwide. Since 2012, the company has been a subsidiary of American company Iconix Brand Group
Recall, the clothing factory Guliston was privatized by Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry V. Firtash in 2002, when the jailed Tajik tycoon Zayd Saidov was Minister of Industry of Tajikistan and representatives of the anticorruption agency note that Zayd Saidov allegedly promoted illegal privatization of the enterprise using his official status.
Firtash reportedly assumed the 95% ownership interest and Zayd Saidov’s son, Khairullo Saidov, owned 5 percent of shares in this enterprise
Firtash was arrested in Vienna on March 12, 2014, and released on a 125 million Euro bail two days later.
Following Firtash’s arrest, Tajikistan’s anticorruption agency charged him on March 15, 2014 with the illegal privatization of the clothing factory “Guliston”.
The anticorruption agency argued that Zayd Saidov had been involved in the fraudulent privatization of the clothing factory.
On April 2, 2014, Dushanbe’s Economic Court invalidated privatization of Closed Joint-Stock Company (CJSC) “Guliston” on the basis of a suit filed by the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption. The court ruled that the enterprise must be handed over to the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies. ,
