Number of registered small business (without farms) made up 248,974 units as 1 April 2013, the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan said quoting data of the Single State registrar of enterprises and organizations.
The committee said that some 7,164 new small businesses were registered in January-March 2013. About 4,674 (65.2% of total registered) were registered in production industries and 2,490 (34.8%) – in non-production spheres of economy (services).

The World Bank and the Government of Uzbekistan signed a loan of US$180m for the project implementation of the automated system of accounting and control of energy consumption.
The aim of the project is to reduce commercial losses of three enterprises of power grids in the city of Tashkent, Tashkent and Sirdaryo regions. This will be achieved by improving the infrastructure accounting and billing, as well as improved management through introduction of an effective system of commercial management.

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov signed a resolution “On additional measures on speeding up development of services in rural areas in 2013-2016” on 17 April 2013.
The document was adopted to speed up and balanced development of services in rural areas, expand access of rural population to high technologic and market services, create new jobs and improve income of population.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov approved a programme on further rapid development of services in rural areas of Uzbekistan for 2013-2016.

On April 23 the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan has held a session, devoted to the results of the socio-economic development of the country for the first quarter of 2013 and evaluating the implementation of the major directions and priorities of the economic program for the current year, determined by President Islam Karimov at the government session on January 18 this year.

The 7th International Chess Tournament ''Toshkent open'', dedicated to the memory of the first Uzbek grandmaster Georgiy Agzamov ended in Tashkent.
More than a hundred chess players from such countries like Uzbekistan, the USA, England, Spain, Germany, Brunei, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan took part in this traditional competition organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Chess Federation of Uzbekistan.

Tashkent hosted Festival of National Pilaf “Osh Bayrami” for the first time as part of the “World of Leisure” Exhibition second day. Its aim was to gather and demonstrate all national features of the main dish of Uzbek cuisine.
One day was enough to turn an area in front of the “Uzexpocenter” metropolitan exhibition complex into a noisy and lively oriental cuisine “restaurant” with a menu offering only one dish – famous Uzbek pilaf.

Keynote Speech of the President, IDB, at the International Conference on “Modern housing construction as a driving force of comprehensive development and transformation of rural areas, enhancing the living standards of population”
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Your Excellency, Honourable Mr. Islam Karimov, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan
Honourable representatives of the participating organizations, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The program of the 28th Martial Arts Festival had strictly limited the time allotted for the performance of each of the 40 federations to a maximum of 5 minutes. These very five minutes was the ultimate moment of a five-day trip to Paris the team of Uzbekistan had made.

I. Introduction
Excellency President Karimov, Distinguished Ministers, Conference Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted to be in Uzbekistan once again, and appreciate the opportunity to be here at this high-level international conference.
II. The Uzbekistan Economy

The participants of the International Conference noted that the issues of housing construction along with the development of relevant infrastructure, considered to be a factor of growth and development, have always occupied a distinct position in the economies, in particular, in the banking and financial systems of the developed and developing countries.