Field Reports News Bites Archives
BIWEEKLY BRIEFING Wednesday/September 26, 2001
RECENT ECONOMIC REFORMS IN UZBEKISTAN
Richard Pomfret
Uzbekistan is considered to be one of the least reformed of all former centrally
planned economies and its superior economic performance is therefore considered
surprising. Official statements about reforms are often treated with skepticism,
especially by the IMF and World Bank with whom relations have been frosty. Recent measures
concerning external economic policy and private sector development should, however, be
treated as genuine reforms, and as components of an established strategy of gradual
reforms and cautious but sound government which has served the country relatively well.
SHEVARDNADZE'S GEORGIA: FROM THE POLITICS OF
BALANCING TO AN ERA OF STAGNATION
Zurab Tchiaberashvili
Many in Georgia and in the West thought that during his last presidential term,
Shevardnadze would demonstrate the political will to implement fundamental reforms in
different fields of Government and to help the country out of crisis. However, the
deepening gorge between the reformist and anti-reformist forces in government are now
becoming public and irreconcilable, further worsening Georgia’s already grave
internal situation.
WATER SHORTAGE IN CENTRAL ASIA: IS THERE A WAY OUT?
Akbar Tursunzod
The severest drought in Central Asia for the third consecutive year, and predictions
that this type of events will be considered as ordinary events in the years to come,
forces governments and international agencies to look for alternative sources of water,
and to reconsider the current practice of water distribution in the region. The question
how to distribute water resources in the region in order to avoid any further
complications in the relations between the countries of Central Asia, becomes one of the
most topical in the agenda of inter-state relations.
THE ARMENIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN PROGRESS
Alexander Markarov
The constitutional reform process launched in Armenia in 1998 is now getting to the
stage of parliamentary debates. While it is more or less apparent what amendments are
intended within the fields of human rights protection, ensuring the independent function
of the judicial branch and local self-government and what will be presented later for the
national referendum within those fields, the problematic issue remains the relations
between the president and the legislative branch, especially in connection to the
vagueness in the discrete authorities of those two institutions. This issue could
jeopardize the whole process of constitutional reform.
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