Central Asia

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov met with chairman of the Korean Air Yang-Ho Cho on 23 April at Oqsaroy residence in Tashkent.

On 23 April, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov held a number of meetings with high-ranking guests who arrived in Ashgabat to participate in the international high level conference.

The banking sector of Kazakhstan is quite able to meet its obligations to foreign lenders, National Bank Chair Grigory Marchenko said.

Heavy rains that fell on Uzbekistan in April have destroyed cotton fields in Jizak Region. Farmers say that this would not have happened if the authorities had not hastened them with sowing.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s predictions Kyrgyz inflation can exceed 12 percent in 2009.

Georgian Prime Minister Nikoloz Gilauri, who arrived in Ashgabat at the head of a delegation to attend an international energy conference under the auspices of UN, met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on 22 April.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are the leaders among CIS states in expected economic growth in the global financial crisis, reports the analytical report of the Internatinal Monetary Fund (IMF).

Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov has met with the representatives of Chevron Company headed by the Vice-President of the corporation John Watson on April 22.

The Western Union money transfer system's regional director for Central Asia, Jalil Haydarov, has confirmed problems with paying cash to clients in Uzbekistan. This problem is acute in regions.

Kyrgyzstan can possibly obtain $3.432 billion through the Kumtor project, resources at the White House informed.