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World Jewish News
Uzbeks Allot Land Plots to Israelis
07.05.2009
Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures is ready to cooperate on the realization of joint projects in the arid regions of northwestern Uzbekistan.
This opens up new opportunities for the domestic business in Central Asia. And the nearest associate of the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs functions as a connecting link.
500 hectares of land in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakia in the northwest of Uzbekistan have been allocated for drip irrigation projects. This was
informed by Karakalpakia's Minister of Agriculture Farhad Ermonov at the meeting with Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures Uzi Landau on May 4. 20 hectares in Karakalpakia were apportioned for a drip irrigation project of Israeli company Netafim about 10 years ago. Technologies acquired during this time have proved to be the best for the local conditions. That is why, according to Ermonov, it has been decided to considerably expand the scale of such
projects.
The particular attention of the parties has been paid to the prospects of cooperation in desalting and second processing of water. As noted by Landau, referring to the recent UN report, Israel is one of the world leaders in the second processing of water, in particular, in processing of waste water for agricultural irrigation.
Israel's experience is of special interest namely for the north-western regions of Uzbekistan for a number of reasons: over 80 percent of Karakalpakia's territory consists of deserts; the underground sources have a high salt content; there is a growing lack of irrigation water because of shallow water. The issue of a fresh water deficit Karakalpakia is facing is no less burning. All these
problems are considerably aggravated by the consequences of the ecological catastrophe in the Aral Sea.
Uzi Landau informed his interlocutor that modern modifications of Israeli desalting systems allowed decreasing water salt content from 35,000 milligrams to 150 milligrams making it potable.
The parties agreed to continue contacting on the level of professional groups.
The Israeli Minister expressed his interest in visiting Uzbekistan, in particular Karakalpakia, at the head of the delegation of branch companies' representatives.
The meeting of Landau and Ermonov took place within the framework of the visit of Karakalpakia's Minister of Agriculture to Israel on April 4-7. This journey has been timed to the International Agricultural Exhibition Agritech-2009 that will take place in Tel-Aviv on April 5-7. Besides, the guest from Uzbekistan will conduct talks with Minister of Agriculture Shalom Simhon on the 6th of
April.
It is indicative that the first minister who received the guest from Uzbekistan is Uzi Landau, a representative of Yisrael Beiteinu Party (Hebrew: Israel is Our
Home). From his point of view, he has thereby guaranteed the succession of cooperation between the Minister of National Infrastructures and this Central Asian country.
Yisrael Beiteinu's leader Avigdor Liberman was the only head of this office who visited Uzbekistan (2001). And now, as the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he is placing a priority on the development of relations with this
region and with Uzbekistan in particular.
An immediate organizer of this meeting was Yisrael Beiteinu's general secretary Faina Kirshenbaum that had returned from her travel to Kazakhstan just a week
and a half before. She considers development of inter-parliamentary and humanitarian ties with the countries of this region to be one of her objectives.
With the support of the group of experts on Central Asia, the general secretary of Yisrael Beiteinu is also concerned with determining mutual interests in different branches of bilateral relations and establishing contacts between the
corresponding structures. This is applicable to a number of issues that are beyond the bounds of the diplomatic apparatus: from education to infrastructures.
Ms. Kirshenbaum emphasizes that development of relations with Central Asia does not solely opens up new vistas in the Muslim world but gives additional opportunities of the integration of Russian-speaking Israelis in the domestic
business (the realization of bilateral projects in the field of economy and infrastructures is practically impossible without them).
It is interesting that taking the field' of Yisrael Beiteinu's general secretary has been already noticed not only by leading Kazakh mass media (IzRus portal informed on it) but Russian media as well. Thus, during her stay in
Kazakhstan, authoritative internet site Kreml.org became interested in her activities. In the interview to the resource, she explained her interest to this region: "Republics of Central Asia are not a part of the post-Soviet area alone, they belong to the Muslim world too. In recent years, they have been taking a more and more active part in the activities of Muslim global institutions,
receiving growing attention from the Near East and Middle East countries. But at the same time, a secular system of government remains in republics of Central Asia; the country leaders oppose religious extremism in an active and resolute way. It is no wonder that republics of this region are gaining a more and more important role in the fight against international terrorism. For us, they are a
unique gate to the Muslim world that allows extending our relations with it."
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