The New Year Congratulation of President to the People of Uzbekistan

Dear compatriots!
Distinguished friends!

It gives me an enormous pleasure at these exciting moments to congratulate you from the bottom of my heart and cordially on the forthcoming New Year, and availing myself of this opportunity, to express all of you my sincere respect.

The year 2008 is coming to an end. It should be said that the outgoing year, as a whole, was not the easy for our country.

In the passed year we had to address many various problems. Those were both the lack of water and dry season which became a serious trial for the workers of countryside, as well as other difficult tasks which had to be dealt with in various spheres of economy and our daily life.

We have spent very much energy and paid attention and today we are still doing so in order to prevent and mitigate the possible consequences of the world financial crisis which has unfolded in 2008 to preserve the sustainable growth rates of economy and well being of our people.

Despite all those problems and hardships, for over the past period we have been able to do much along the path of progressive development of economy and improvement of living standards of our people.

Suffice it to note that for over the past two years the gross domestic product growth rates have accounted for no less 9 percent and the average salary, pensions, stipends and allowances had increased twofold with incomes of the rural population seeing its significant rise.

We cannot but be pleased with a growing diversity and abundance of goods at the shops and markets, the reasonable prices, the scales of construction and modernization of production capacities, facilities of social sphere, the look of our towns and villages, and, as a whole, the look of our country, which have been changing day by day.

I am convinced that as we sum up the outcomes of what has been accomplished we all clearly realize that everything that we have secured for over the past period was achieved first and foremost thanks to the selfless and tireless work of our people regardless of their nationality, religion and belief, to their solid confidence in their future, preservation of peace and stability, inter-national and civil accord which has been reigning in the country.

Second, thanks to consistent implementation of the deeply thought-out policy of reforms and democratic renewal of the country, confident progression on the way of liberalizing political and judicial system, establishing free economy and civil institutions.

Third, this is the result of enormous attention which from the early years of independent development we have been paying to our youth, our children, to their harmonic and comprehensive development in the spirit of national and universal values.

Announcement of the year 2008 as the “Year of youth” became a truly most powerful impetus in realizing their potential and implementing the Nation-wide program for cadres training, creating necessary conditions in the country so that the graduates of our institutions of higher learning, newly built colleges and lyceums could truly become such a decisive force which would be able to take on a responsibility for renewal of our society as much as the future of the country.

Fourth, perhaps the most important which our advancement is based on - as life changes - the fact that human is changing, our people are changing, as much as their worldview and attitude towards life, results of their work, their complicity towards what is happening around them, their political and social activeness, their civil consciousness and responsibility.

Availing myself of this opportunity, my dear compatriots, I consider it my duty to express all of you the words of sincere gratitude and respect for your diligent work, for everything that you are doing to overcome problems and hardships on our way, for the sake of present and future of our country, and for the sake of its prosperity.

Dear friends!

Each of us, without any doubt, links with the forthcoming New Year 2009 his most dearest dreams, sincere wishes to live better and fuller realize his abilities and opportunities.

On the eve of 2009 we have all grounds to state that the New Year will be for Uzbekistan the year of progressive development and modernization of the country, the year of continuing and deepening the started reforms and transformations, the year of implementing the anti-crisis programs and, firstly, the technical and technological re-equipment, diversification and stimulation of production, as well as indexation of payment for labor, pensions, stipends, allowances, the growth of incomes and people’s living standards.

We have announced the year 2009 as the “Year of development and improvement of countryside”. The main objectives which we set before ourselves in this is to implement today’s priority tasks related firstly to further development of countryside’s infrastructure, construction and renewal of housing, roads and communications, improvement of provision of people with drinking water, natural gas, the issues of protection of people’s health, consolidation of the system of education - to put it short, raising the living standards and culture in the countryside.

The most important significance take on the construction and establishment in the countryside of small compact enterprises equipped with modern technologies, development of the sphere of services, and on such basis employment of rural population, and above all, of the youth, support of farmers, as much as the interests of middle class - the owners, entrepreneurs and businesspeople.

All these tangible transformations and deep changes which we envisage to implement proceeding from announcement of 2009 as the “Year of development and improvement of countryside”, in my opinion, come to a very simple notion comprehensible to all of us: if countryside develops then there will be abundance at our table, and the quality of our life will grow.

Finally, the reliable and stable basis will be established to ensure food security and growth of well being of our people, as much as the look of the country will change.

My dear compatriots!

Allow me, time and again to cordially congratulate you all on the upcoming New Year 2009!

May the New Year bring kindness and sufficiency, happiness and many joys to our families! May peace and tranquility prevail at our homes and in our soil, as well as a pure sky above our Homeland!

I wish you all a sound health, successes and luck in the New Year!
Happy New Year!

Islam Karimov,
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan