AKIPRESS.COM - While President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov advises eating more vegetables and fruit, World Bank data suggests that one out of six Uzbeks lives below the poverty line, UzNews reports.

Thus, 16% of the Uzbek population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Development Indicators index. In 2012, the Gross National Index of Uzbekistan comprised $143 per month.

The Human Development Index, consists of three main criteria – life expectancy, quality of education, and quality of life – and ranks Uzbekistan at 114th place among 186 countries in the world.

In comparison, most other former Soviet republics are ranked higher: Belarus is ranked 50th, Russia – 55th, Kazakhstan – 69th, Georgia – 72nd, Ukraine – 78th, Azerbaijan – 82nd, and Armenia – 87th.

Uzbekistan shares its low development category with Turkmenistan (102nd), Moldova (113th), and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan which both share 125th place.

Speaking on June 6 at an international conference in Tashkent on Food Program in Uzbekistan, President Karimov declared that every eighth person in the world does not have enough to eat.

At the same time, he suggested everyone in the world should eat more fresh produce, recommending that 50% of the daily diet consist of fruit and vegetables.

“Evidently entirely consumed by problems of world production of the adequate supply of fresh vegetables, Karimov did not bother addressing concerns how 16 percent of his own population could possibly do that, or what they can afford to eat in general, while living below the poverty line,” UzNews stressed.