The first contract between the Government of Azerbaijan and the International Oil Consortium was signed in September 1994. Today, another twenty-one contracts, for oil field engineering in the Caspian Sea, have also been signed. Out of the $7B of foreign funds invested in the country’s economy over the past 5 years, about $5B have been directed to oil industry development. So far, oil extraction volumes are rather low, and it is being conveyed well mainly via the pipelines Baku — Supsa (Georgia) and Baku — Novorossiysk (Russia), each of which are only capable of up to 10M t throughput per annum. But as early as 2010—2012 total oil extraction volume should reach 60M t a year.

In order to develop further the social infrastructure of Uzbekistan rural areas, during 9 months of 2009 it is commissioned 4,728.8 ths. sq. meters of housing (112.9% comparing to January-September 2008).

Uzbekneftegaz and South Korea’s DongHo ENC have signed a Memorandum of Association to establish a joint venture for the production of electronic gas meters.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan approved the draft of Uzbekistan budget for 2010, the forecast of the main macroeconomic parameters, the concept of Uzbekistan tax and budget policy.