Source:

06-06-2006 17:28

With an area of 447,400 square kilometers, the Republic of Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia, bordering Kazakhstan in thenorth, Turkmenistan in the west, Kyrgyzstan in the east, Tajikistan in the southeast and Afghanistan in the south.

The climate is marked by extreme temperatures and low levels ofprecipitation. Summers are long and hot, and winters are short.

Uzbek is the official language of the country and Russian is also used.

Islam is the predominant religion. Most Uzbeks are Sunni Muslims, but there are small communities of Wahhabis. There are also Orthodox Christians among the Slavic communities, and an estimated 65,000 European Jews and 28,000 Central Asian Jews.

The national flag consists of five unequal horizontal stripes of light blue, red, white, red and light green, with a white crescent and 12 white stars near the hoist on the top stripe.

The capital is Tashkent, with a population of over two million.

The highest legislative body of Uzbekistan is the Oly Majlis (Supreme Assembly), comprising 250 deputies. It is elected for a term of five years.

The president of the republic, who is directly elected by the people for a five-year term, is the head of state and holds the supreme executive power. An individual may be elected president for a maximum of two consecutive terms.

Economically, Uzbekistan is the most developed among the five Central Asian countries.

Uzbekistan is well endowed with mineral deposits, in particulargold, natural gas, petroleum and coal

The head of state:

Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov, president of Uzbekistan, former member of the politburo of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) Central Committee.

Born in the city of Samarkand in 1938, an Uzbek. Member of the CPSU since 1964. A mechanical engineer, an economist, and candidate of science (economics).

He graduated from the Central Asian Polytechnical Institute and the Tashkent Institute of the National Economy. He began his work activities in 1960 as assistant foreman at the Tashselmash Farm Machinery Plant. He worked as designer and then the leading engineer at Tashkent's Chkalov Aircraft Production Amalgamation. From 1966, he started working in the state planning committee of the Uzbek SSR as chief specialist, a departmental chief, and then deputy chairman of the committee. From 1983, he served as Minister of Finance and then Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Uzbek SSR.

In 1986, he became first secretary of the Kashkadarya regional committee of the Party and in 1989 he was elected the first secretary of the Uzbekistan communist party central committee. He was a USSR People's Deputy and the holder of state awards.

He was elected as President of the Uzbek SSR in 1990. At the 28th congress of the CPSU, he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee. At the 1990 July plenary meeting, he was elected member of the political bureau of CPSU Central Committee. After Uzbekistan's independence, he was elected as Uzbek president in December 1991, and re-elected president on January 9, 2000.

He made official visits to China twice, i.e. March 12-14, 1992 and October 24-26, 1994.

(Source：Xinhua )

 

Editor:Chen Minji