FERGHANA VALLEY: ROBLEMS OF MAINTAINING ECONOMIC STABILITY
Abstract
The Central Asia region, which is located in the very heart of the vast Eurasian continent at the crossroads where four of the largest civilizations (Russian, Chinese, Indian, and Islamic) meet, has a long and profuse history teeming with difficulties and conflicts.
The Ferghana Valley is a territory where all the problems of the Central Asia region (border conflicts, poverty, shortage of fertile land and water resources, unemployment, ethnic disputes, and so on) are concentrated and come together in a tangled ball of contradictions. So an analysis of the main, primarily economic, problems of the Ferghana Valley is vital to understanding the overall situation in Central Asia and around it.
The Ferghana Valley, an intermontane depression nestled in the foothills of Tien Shan, up to 300 km in length from the West to the East and up to 170 km from north to south, is one of the main agricultural regions of Central Asia. Only four roads (Ferghana-Tashkent, Ferghana-Khujand, OshBishkek, and Osh-Khorog) and one railroad branch (Ferghana-Khujand) link the valley to the outside world.
In Soviet times, national-state demarcation was carried out in Central Asia, including in the Ferghana Valley, on the basis of a rather arbitrary idea of ethnic borders. The Ferghana Valley, which was always a single area, was divided by the administrative borders of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, which acquired the status of state borders after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. Today, this change in status is giving rise to many problems. The borders divide a previously indivisible region and have broken down historical economic, cultural, and political ties. The flat part of the valley belongs to the Republic of Uzbekistan and is divided into the Andijan, Namangan, and Ferghana regions. The eastern part of the valley as well as the mountains and foothills surrounding the valley from the north, east, and south belong to the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and are part of the Osh, Jalal-Abad, and Batken regions. The western part of the valley belongs to the Sogd (former Leninabad) Region of the Republic of Tajikistan.
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Calculated by the author according to the data of the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Uzbekistan [www.state.uz], the National Statistics Board of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan [www.stat.kg] and the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Tajikistan [www.stat.tj].
Calculated by the author according to the data of the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Uzbekistan [www.state.uz], the National Statistics Board of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan [www.stat.kg] and the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Tajikistan [www.stat.tj].
See: Natsional’naia strategia ustoichivogo razvitiia Respubliki Uzbekistan, Tashkent, 1999, p. 48.
See: S. Olimova, M. Olimov, “Vliianie antiterroristicheskoi kampanii v Afganistane na sosednie strany Tsentral’noi Azii,”available at [http://www.eawarn.ru/pub/AnnualReport/AnnualReportWebHome2001/2001anrep05.htm], 17 January, 2007.
Data of the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Tajikistan can be found at [www.stat.tj].
Data of the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Tajikistan can be found at [www.stat.tj].
See: Strategy Paper 2002-2006 and the National Indicative Program 2002-2004 for Central Asia, 31 October, 2002.
See: “Samaia vysokaia zarplata v Tadzhikistane u rabotnikov sfery sviazi,” available at [http://news.mail.ru/
ews.html?940626], 11 January, 2007.
See: S. Lunev, “Ferganskaia dolina kak odna iz modelei regionalnogo razvitiia,” Central Asia, No. 9, 1997, avail-able at [http://www.ca-c.org/journal/09-1997/st_04_lunev.shtml], 22 January, 2007.
See: “V Sogdiiskoi oblasti zaregistrirovano 14 tys. Bezrabotnykh,” Information Agency AKIpress, 27 April, 2006.
See: Natsional’naia strategia ustoichivogo razvitiia Respubliki Uzbekistan, p. 48.
Calculated by the author according to the data of the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Uzbekistan [www.state.uz], the National Statistics Board of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan [www.stat.kg] and the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Tajikistan [www.stat.tj].
Relevant data (in Russian) of the Water Users Associations Support Program (WUASP) in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,and Uzbekistan (joint project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Winrock Internation-al, Academy for Educational Development and New Mexico State University are available at [http://www.wuasp.uz/
ndex.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=12&meid=22], 11 January, 2007.
Relevant information (in Russian) on the Land Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan is available at [http://
awlib.freenet.uz/laws/uzbek/zemluz/4.html], 11 January, 2007.
See: Art 1 of the Uzbekistan Republic Law on the Agricultural Cooperative (Shirkat), available at [http://
akonuz.narod.ru/z89.htm], 11 January, 2007.
According to the data of the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Uzbekistan, available at [http://www.stat.uz/
TAT/index.php?%ru%&article=65], 11 January, 2007.
See: Art 22 of the Republic of Uzbekistan Law on the Farm, available at [http://www.wuasp.uz/
odules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=150], 21 January, 2007.
Decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Measures to Reorganize Agricultural En-terprises into Farms (5 January 2002, No. 8), available at [http://www.wuasp.uz/modules.php?name=Up Download&req=getit&lid=156], 21 January, 2007.
See: Republic of Uzbekistan Law on the Dekhkan Farm (No. 837-XII), available at [http://www.wuasp.uz/
odules.php?name=UpDownload&req=getit&lid=149], 21 January, 2007.
According to the data of the State Statistics Board of the Republic of Uzbekistan, available at [http://www.stat.uz/
TAT/index.php?%ru%&article=65], 21 January, 2007.
Relevant information (in Russian) on the Land Code of the Republic of Tajikistan is available at [http://
ww.kishovarz.tj/documents/ru/qonunho/zemelniy.doc], 21 January, 2007.
Ibidem; relevant information (in Russian) on the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan on the Dekhkan Farm is avail-able at [http://zakon.tj/index.cgi?lid=3629], 21 January, 2007; Decision of the Republic of Tajikistan Government “On Reorganization of Agricultural Enterprises and Organizations between 2002 and 2005,” available at [http://zakon.tj/
ndex.cgi?lid=3769], 21 January, 2007 (in Russian).
Relevant information (in Russian) on the Land Code of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan is available at [http://
awlib.freenet.uz/laws/kyrgyz/zemkg/1.html], 27 January, 2007.
For more detail on the agriculture of the Osh Region see: [http://www.osh.gov.kg/agr/agr.htm], 27 January, 2007.
See: A. Taksanov, “Razminirovanie—put miru i protsvetaniiu. Vzgliad iz Uzbekistana,” Varorud, No. 36 (124),
September, 2004.
See: “V Khujande ogranichena podacha gaza gorozhanam do 1 chasa v sutki,” Information Agency AKIpress,
April, 2006.
See: Natsional’naia strategia ustoichivogo razvitiia Respubliki Uzbekistan, p. 48.
See: L. Maksakov, “Eksport rabochei sily iz Uzbekistana,” Trudovaia migratsiia v SNG (Labor Migration in the CIS), No. 7, 2002.
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