In April, Unisys Corp opened a new office in Tashkent, the capital of Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan. The office will be responsible for Unisys operations in all countries on the southern rim of the former Soviet Union, including the Central Asian republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan as well as the Trans-Caucasian republics of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. Frederick De Souza, Unisys regional sales manager, says Tashkent was chosen mainly because of its central position in the region, the stability of Uzbekistan and its growing computer market. Unisys has two partners in Uzbekistan: the local branch of ComputerLand and JV VOT-EC; one partner in Azerbaija, EVD Service and one in Kazakhstan, ALSI. Unisys has a number of strategic installations in the region. The most important are the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan, where the company has installed a national clearing and settlement system, and the Office of the President of Uzbekistan. There are three other installations in the region. One each in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Armenia. De Souza says that in partnership with local Unisys distributors across the region, the company will be focusing initially on the needs of two major market sectors: banking and open systems. Secondary markets will be telecommunications and transport. He says that given Unisys’ experience in the Russian market, the company hopes to win a slice of the market of local banking systems, clearing and payment systems, document processing and retail branch delivery systems to the financial community. De Souza says that for the time being, Unisys does not intend to increase its number of local partners in Kazakhstan. ALSI is the only Unisys distributor and Unisys intends to make the company a Unisys systems integrator for business and government.
