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bne October 2020 Companies & Markets I 15
Processing harvested cotton
The Uzbek government is aiming to domestically process all of its cotton harvested in the country by 2025, Boboyev added. This would allow Uzbekistan to raise its textile products exports to $7bn per annum, officials believe. Tashkent has previously announced plans to spend $918mn on 77 projects in the textile industry by the end of 2019. Uzbekistan's annual cotton harvest currently stands at just below 3mn tonnes.
Uzbekistan has increased the proportion of value-added finished products such as knitwear and readymade garments to 51% of its textile exports, local media reported. The country has also begun exporting new products such as protective masks and clothing.
In 2018, the government announced a decision to create
a free economic zone focused on producing sportswear and sports equipment in Tashkent Region. It hoped such a zone could attract a number of international brands, including Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Li Ning, Eleiko, Janssen-Fritsen and Gymnova, among others.
French company Atkorschultz in 2019 launched a $8.5mn
Bulgarian protesters go toy shopping to support local businessmen targeted by authorities
Denitsa Koseva in Sofia
Thousands of Bulgarian protesters bought toys from stores owned by local businessman Marian Kolev on September 3 after reports that he became the subject of probes by the economic police, tax authorities and market supervision authorities under the direct supervision of the prosecution the day after he wrote a critical post on Facebook related to police violence at protests.
Bulgaria is going through the biggest political crisis for years as for two months hundreds of thousands of people have been flooding onto the streets of Sofia and several other towns, demanding the resignations of the government and of chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev who have been accused of corruption and involvement with controversial politicians and businessmen.
On September 2, the protests turned violent when the police used pepper spray and tear gas, while alleged provocateurs
footwear production plant in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Region with the intention of producing high-quality men's, women's and children's shoes made of “genuine leather”. The plant’s capacity stands at 1mn pairs of footwear.
Cotton Campaign’s RSA
Last month, Cotton Campaign, which over many years has led the international boycott against Uzbek cotton and textiles
in an effort to end all forced and child labour in the cotton fields, presented a new responsible sourcing agreement (RSA) framework. The agreement would facilitate responsible sourcing of cotton and cotton products by global brands and their suppliers and simultaneously provide monitoring of
the cotton production process; capacity building for cotton and textile clusters, farmers, and workers; an enforceable grievance mechanism; and supply chain transparency. This could benefit both Uzbekistan’s cotton exports and textile sector exports for goods that rely on Uzbek cotton.
Uzbekistan says it has made huge progress in stamping out forced and child labour in the cotton fields in the past three years and is hopeful that all boycotts against its cotton and textiles products will be lifted in the not-too-distant future.
among protesters were throwing smoke bombs, fireworks and other missiles at the police.
Kolev, the owner of Hippoland, a Bulgarian chain of toy stores, wrote a post on Facebook, “thanking” the police for spraying his 17-year-old son who had not provoked them in any way.
“Thank you, Mr. Policeman, for nearly blinding a 17-year-old boy who was not threatening you in any way, spraying him not with ordinary tear gas that has short-term effect, but with a chemical weapon that could cause permanent damage.
And it is not an accident that so many people were injured, taken away by ambulances or are still lying on the streets,” Kolev wrote in an open letter published on Hippoland's Facebook page.
He used the same irony against the interior minister for ordering the police to teargas innocent people.
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