The full name: The Republic of Uzbekistan.

Independence: Uzbekistan declared independence on August 31,1991

The national holiday: Independence Day celebrated on the 1st of September.

President: Mr. Islam Karimov

Prime Minister: Mr.Shavkat Mirziyaev

Cabinet: The highest legislative power belongs to bicameral parliament, Oliy Majlis and Senat

Capital: Tashkent

Total Area: 448,900 sq.km (only 11 % arable land)

Population: 26.5 million (2006)

Neighbours: Kazakhstan , the Kyrgyz Republic , Tajikistan , Afghanistan and Turkmenistan ( Uzbekistan is one of the only two double landlocked countries in the world)

Religion: Predominantly Islam 88% (sunni)

Languages: Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%

Monetary unit: Uzbekistan soom

Female Life Expectancy: 74.4 years

Male Life Expectancy: 70.5 years

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country stretching 1500 km west-to-east and 1000 km north-to-south, sharing borders with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The climate is continental and relatively dry, with low rainfall, long hot summers and mild winters. The country has significant reserves of natural resources including large deposits of gold, copper, lead, zinc, uranium, natural gas and oil. It has the largest population of the five Central Asian Republics, recorded at 25.5 million in 2003, of which 77.2% are Uzbek, with the remainder being Russians, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks and Tatars. Of the total population, 15.3 million live in rural areas, and 9.2 million - in urban areas.

The economy of Uzbekistan is influenced by its geography. The country is situated in the basin of two main rivers: the Amudarya, which runs from Tajikistan and provides the Uzbek borders with Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, and the Syrdarya, which flows through Kazakhstan. The agricultural sector is extremely important to the Uzbek economy. The country is one of the world's largest cotton producers, with cotton being one of its primary export earners. Other significant agricultural products include raw silk, fruits, vegetables, grapes, melons, significant quantities of which are exported to neighboring countries.

The East of the country contains the fertile region of the Ferghana Valley, which is densely populated. The Ferghana Valley Region contains much of the country's industrial base, both developed during the central planning era and independence. The Ferghana Valley, having a long history of irrigated agriculture, produces a significant proportion of agricultural output. To the South, Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya are strongly agricultural regions, though the latter is getting known with its gas production. The regions in the West are mainly industrial (mining, chemicals and oil refinery and etc.) with tourist centres of world-wide importance, such as Bukhara and Samarkand. Large and sparsely populated Karakalpakstan to the North West of the country is arid with little industrial activity. Both industry and agriculture in Karakalpakstan are negatively affected by the Aral Sea disaster.

Since independence the Uzbek's Government's economic policies were largely protectionist, including non-convertibility of the Uzbek Sum (though this has changed to some extent in October of 2003 after the introduction of convertibility), and the reliance on cotton as a major foreign exchange earner.

Economic reforms in Uzbekistan were gradual. This step-by-step approach intended to achieve:

1. economic independence by way of curtailing imports through their replacement and self-sufficiency with energy resources and food products;
2. reorientation of the economy from raw materials production towards the creation of a competitive industrial structure;
3. expansion of export potential and increasing its gold and hard currency reserves to ensure stability of the national currency;
4. creation of new opportunities and improving living standards.

To this day the role of the state in the economy is sizable although it continues to decline. The share of the non-state sector in the Nation's GDP in 2001 was 74.1% however this figure varies from sector to sector (e.g. 99% - in agriculture, 59.4% - in services rendered to population). The state still exercise a fair degree of control on the non-state sector. For example, the major part of agricultural production still depends directly on government targets for cotton and grain.

With all the achievements in maintaining political and economic stability, a number of problems emerged during the transition period, including the decline of living standards, growing unemployment and an increasing gap between the poor and the rich.

With a human development index (HDI) of 0.694 in 2003, Uzbekistan ranks 111 out of 177 countries, according to the Human Development Report 2005. The country's HDI scores and overall rating have remained stable over the years since independence. Disparities between regions and rural-urban areas have become more apparent, with the strongest indicator of vulnerability to poverty being the region of residence. Sixty-three percent of the population of Uzbekistan lives in rural areas, where approximately 35 percent are likely to be poor.

The painful process of transition had a drastic influence on the vulnerable strata of the population: young families, unemployed, families with many children, female-headed households, pensioners, invalids and the youth. It resulted in the reduction of consumer basket, medical services availability, access to school and after school education, access to energy suppliers (gas, coal), to services of infrastructure and transport. Even a relatively generous government welfare system was unable to stem the negative impact brought about by transition.
The process of transition continues to be a defining feature of Uzbekistan's development. However, in the situation of macroeconomic stability there is a need to focus efforts on the improvement of living condition of population.