Kazakhs with their backs to the wall
Azerbaijan keeps its options open
In Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, the stock exchange trading floor glimmers with an air of newness in a renovated building. Some visitors say it's just like a mini-New York Stock Exchange. There's even a floor for options and derivatives, a Big Board to register trades among the 60-odd small and medium-size stocks that pass hands, and 100-odd Hewlett-Packard 486 PCs. In reality, the building which houses the exchange is hardly used and trading volume is negligible. Most outsiders don't even know the exchange exists.
Ever since the IMF cancelled its standby loan to the government almost two years ago, western representatives and investors have grown increasingly impatient. Uzbekistan's government presides over one of the most promising economic regions in central Asia, yet just like the Stock Exchange, the country has failed to develop the way western investors had expected. So few are now interested in the country that the government is embarrassed.
A handful hoped they would have a chance to learn more at a foreign investor conference scheduled for June 30 in Tashkent. But one week before the conference, it was cancelled.