TA 4217 TEAM IN QUYI CHIRCHIK

Our TA team recently visited the Regional Business Advisory Centre in Quyi Chirchik district about 50 km from Tashkent and provided training in IT, accounts and access to legal services. We also conducted an appraisal of a 30 hectare demonstration farm that is based on zero-till cultivation previously not used in Uzbekistan. This is part of the on-going assistance being provided by the ADB's Grains Productivity Improvement Project that includes reform of the grains sector.

LECTURE AT INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL TASHKENT

Geoffrey Quartermaine Bastin with FoodWorks associate Jamshid Ganiev, Managing Director of UBI Consulting lecture on international consulting at "Kelajak Ilmi" International Business School in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 18th October. IBS has a relationship with the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Business School in Ann Arbor. We were invited by Ms. Mila Eschonova, Executive Director. The lecture focused around different approaches to public and private sector consulting services. It was attended by about thirty 3rd and 4th year students. More information on IBS at http://www.ibs.uz/

Pakistan: Comparative Advantage Study of the Food Processing Sector for the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF)

The Competitveness Support Fund (CSF) has been set-up with the sponsorship/ financial assistance of USAID and the Ministry of Finance. It undertakes studies to determine the existing competitiveness of selected industrial sectors and to make policy recommendations to the highest level of the Government. The primary objective of the Study to be undertaken by FoodWorks in November ‘06 thru January 2007 is to evaluate the competitive advantage of the food processing industry and its opportunities for growth along with identification of the problems/obstacles faced by the sector. Food processing is the largest industry in Pakistan and it continues to grow as the use of processed food becomes popular especially in the cities. The list of sub-sectors includes beverages, dairy, fruits and vegetables, snack foods and cereal-based foods (wheat and rice), meat, confectionery and vegetable oil (including vegetable ghee).

Our project office in Tashkent

Our project is with ANZDEC of New Zealand and UBI Consulting for the Asian Development Bank (TA No. 4217-UZB). In 2000-01 Bastin helped design a $40 million loan project for the grains industry focused on wheat productivity improvement. His current work in 2006 is a Technical Assistance project to continue the furthering of reforms in the sector with a special focus on farm machinery and seeds. From a base in Tashkent the TA works in three focus areas up-country. The work program runs to December 2006. Bastin is the Team Leader managing a group of international and local specialists.

Wheat harvesting near Zomin, Djizzak, Uzbekistan

Our ADB Technical Assistance project has evaluated the financing, procurement and operation of 49 "Dominator 130"-type combine harvesters (manufactured by the CLAAS company of Germany) in three focus areas in central Uzbekistan. The evaluation included financing methods, ownership structures, the logistics of the harvest, technical operation of the harvesters themselves and the financial impact on those farmers and service enterprises borrowing to purchase the machines.

New Projects

FoodWorks will start work in Pakistan for the Asian Development Bank under sub-contract to ANZDEC in October 2005. The project is a loan preparation assistance for coastal communities in Sindh (ADB TA 4525).