President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the decree reorganizing the Uzbek Agency for Press and Information into the Agency of Information and Mass Communications and has become part of the Presidential Administration, the agency said.

By the presidential decree of February 1, Bakhrom Ashrafkhanov has been appointed deputy finance minister in charge of social issues, the Ministry of Finance said.

President of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences Behzod Yuldashev met with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano in Vienna Thursday, the foreign ministry said.

On January 29-30, the Uzbek Defense Minister held a meeting with the leadership of the Central Command of the United States Armed Forces in Tampa, Florida, the Defense Ministry’s said.

The mayor of the Tashkent city Jahongir Artikkhojaev in a press conference replied to the questions of journalists about his ties with companies involved in the Tashkent City business distrcit project.

The Department for Combating Economic Crimes under the Uzbek General Prosecutor's Office and the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Egmont Group Meetings in Jakarta Wednesday.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed decree Tuesday bringing political science studies back to the Uzbek Universities, in particular, to the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED) starting from 2019-2020 academic year.

Uzbekistan is holding talks for purchase of Russian Yak-130 jet-trainer originally developed by Yakovlev and Aermacchi, the Kommersant newspaper said.

During the visit of the leadership of the Uzbek Academy of the General Prosecutor's Office to Sweden and Finland, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed with the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki on Friday.

Strategic planning bill will be drafted in Uzbekistan. This was stated in the President’s Priority Measures to Raising the Responsibility of the Cabinet of Ministers for the Effectiveness of Accomplishing Uzbekistan’s Strategic Objectives for Socio-economic Development of the Country Decree.

Uzbek Foreign Minister, Abdulaziz Kamilov today hosted the newly appointed Ambassador of Turkey, Mehmet Süreyya Er, the Ministry said.

The number of foreign nationals who visited Uzbekistan in 2018 increased by 2.3 times compared to 2017 - 6.433 million against 2.847 million people. Last year, the number of Uzbekistan citizens who made foreign trips doubled - 13 million 838.6 thousand people against 6 million 823.4 thousand a year earlier, Statistics Committee reported.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the Introduction of New System of Organizing the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan Decree which has cut the number of deputy prime ministers from eight to five.

According to Uzbek Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Komil Rashidov, Tashkent will host the second consultative meeting of the Central Asian leaders in the spring of 2019.

Uzbek Deputy PM Alisher Sultanov met with executives of SOCAR and BP to outline further areas for advancing cooperation, Uzbekneftegaz said in a statement.

Uzbekistan ranks 158 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2018, with a score of 23, up from 22 in 2017 and neighbors with Eritrea, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Cambodia.

Elyor Ganiev, who worked as deputy adviser to the President, again became Deputy PM in charge of investments and foreign economic ties, sources in the Government told Tashkent Times replacing Sukhrob Kholmuradov.

Hotels will not be entitled to refuse guests who are suspected of "immoral behavior" and to call the police, said the First Deputy Chairman of the Tourism Committee Ulugbek Kasymhojaev.

The chairman of the Uzcharmsanoat (transl. Uz Leather Industry) Association, Sardor Umurzakov, has been appointed Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan, created from the merger of the Investments Committee and the Foreign Trade Ministry, a source in the government told the Tashkent Times.

The Board of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan on January 26 decided to keep the interest rate at 16% per annum, the Central Bank said. The decision was based on the need to keep anti-inflationary monetary policy course, keep positive real interest rates and cut inflation expectations.