President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, today in his address to the parliament, proposed to declare the year 2020 as the Year of Development of Science, Education and the Digital Economy.

Uzbekistan ranks 153rd out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2019, with a score of 25, up from 23 in 2018 and shares the rank with the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Comoros and Tajikistan.

The Public Fund for Support and Development of National Mass Media has been registered by the Ministry of Justice as a NGO and has officially started its activities, the Fund’s Telegram channel said.

The Legislative Chamber at a meeting on January 22 reviewed and approved the candidates for members of the government.

Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov presented a list of members of the Cabinet of Ministers for approval by the Legislative Chamber, a source in the parliament said.

The Jan 24 address of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the joint session of the two chambers of Oliy Majlis will be broadcast live on the state and private TV channels. The broadcast start time is 11 AM Tashkent time.

The U.S. Embassy in Tashkent issued a statement clarifying on its role in the departure of the blogger Nafosat Ollashukorova from Uzbekistan:

Economists generally agree that migration drives growth. Internal migration, from rural (and usually poorer regions) to cities, has historically underwritten economic development and poverty reduction. Think of the Industrial Revolution, which saw migrants surge into burgeoning urban centers.

President Shavkat Mirziyoev in his address to the first session of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis mentioned the possible accession to the Eurasian Economic Union.

The State Committee of Uzbekistan for Ecology and Environmental Protection plans to create a network of automatic air quality measurement stations across the country to include fine particles in the monitoring, the Committee said.

Eleven people including 10 Uzbek workers died when a fire ripped through a one-storey wooden shack in a remote village in the Siberian region of Tomsk, officials said on Tuesday.

The first session of the new Legislative Chamber was held today in Tashkent, in which the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev made an address. Highlights:

The National News Agency of Uzbekistan (UzA) announced the winners of its “Choice of the Year 2019” contest. The award ceremony was held on Friday at the Tashkent’s Zarafshan Concert Hall.

An Uzbek blames the death of his 27-year-old wife on doctors' negligence and a lack of basic equipment and drugs at a hospital in eastern Uzbekistan where she died two weeks after giving birth.

Blogger Nafosat Ollashukurova, who spent three months at the Khorezm Psychiatric clinic, said she had left Uzbekistan.

The candidate for the post of the prime minister, Abdulla Aripov announced the creation in 2020 of a state-owned Humo Air airline.

Uzbekistan is requesting for waivers when joining the EAEU and a migration amnesty, it became known durign the visit of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov to Tashkent, Kommersant said.

Today, the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev hosted a World Bank delegation led by the Vice President, Cyril Muller, the presidential press service said.

The security is one of the main components of the Uzbek-Russian partnership ties, while the military-technical cooperation is developing well between the countries, said the Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov at the MGIMO Tashkent branch inauguration ceremony in Tashkent Thursday.

Changes in the names and faces of political leaders in Central Asia have brought promises for reforms, but core human rights concerns, such as detention of critics and limits to free speech, remain urgent in all five countries, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2020. The region’s new leaders should turn commitments to care about their citizens’ rights into reality.