India Emerge as Key Buyer of Uzbek Gold Between Jan-March 2019

Resource rich Central Asian state of Uzbekistan has emerged as a key supplier of gold to its strategic partner India.

Between January to March 2019, the largest sellers of gold were Uzbekistan with 6.2 tons of this precious metal, Mongolia – 3.4 tons, and Tajikistan – 1 ton, according to a report by the World Gold Council. Russia was principal buyer of gold. In the first quarter of this year, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation purchased 55.3 tons of gold bringing the volume of gold reserves to 2,168.3 tons. Russia wants to reduce its dependence on the US dollar in the case of the introduction of new sanctions.

Furthermore, during this period, large volumes of gold were acquired by the Central Banks of Turkey (40.1 tons), China (33 tons), Kazakhstan (11.2 tons), Ecuador (10.6 tons), Qatar (9.4 tons), India (8.4 tons) and Colombia (6.1 tons). In total, in 1Q2019, the national banks of the countries world-wide acquired 145.5 tons of gold, which is a record over the past six years and 68 percent more than in the same period last year.

According to the report, last year 6.4 tons of gold were extracted in Tajikistan, which became a record volume for the country. As reported by the Ministry of Industry, all gold produced in the country is acquired by the National Bank of Tajikistan.

Uzbekistan is ready to increase gold exports to 80 tons in 2019, which is 10 tons more than in the previous year.In the next five years, Uzbekistan intends to increase gold reserves by 474 tons worth $18.7 billion at the expense of geological exploration. This year the increase in gold reserves is expected to reach 89.7 tons.

In 2020-2024, Tashkent plans to invest about $230 million in the search, evaluation and exploration of new deposits. Meanwhile Tashkent also took important step in fighting cross-border drug menace on May 2-3 by hosting the 11th review meeting of the Parties to the Memorandum of Understanding on sub-regional drug control cooperation in Central Asia. It was attended by delegations of Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Russia, representatives of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Aga Khan Development Network.

Issues of strengthening cooperation in Central Asia on strengthening control over the trade in narcotic drugs were discussed at the meeting.

Courtesy: Economic Times