19th century, with Tashkent becoming the political center of Russian Turkestan. In 1924, national delimitation created the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic as an independent republic within the Soviet Union. Shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991. Uzbekistan is a secular state, with a presidential constitutional government in place. Uzbekistan comprises 12 regions (vilayats), Tashkent City, and one autonomous republic, Karakalpakstan. While non-governmental human rights organisations have defined Uzbekistan as "an authoritarian state with limited civil rights", significant reforms under Uzbekistan's second president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, have been made following the death of the first president, Islam Karimov. Owing to these reforms, relations with the neighbouring countries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan have drastically improved. A United Nations report of 2020 found much progress toward achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The Uzbek economy is in a gradual transition to the market economy, with foreign trade policy being based on import substitution. In September 2017, the country's currency became fully convertible at market rates. Uzbekistan is a major producer and exporter of cotton. With the gigantic power-generation facilities from the Soviet era and an ample supply of natural gas, Uzbekistan has become the largest electricity producer in Central Asia. From 2018 to 2021, the republic received a BB- rating by both Standard and Poor (S&P) and Fitch. Strengths indicated by the Brookings Institution include Uzbekistan having large liquid assets, high economic growth, and low public debt. Among the constraints holding the republic back is the low GDP per capita. Uzbekistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Etymology The name "Uzbegistán" appears in the 16th century Tarikh-i Rashidi. The origin of the word Uzbek remains disputed. Three views exist as to the adjective accompanying -stan (in the family of Indo-Iranian languages: "place of"): "free", "independent" or "own master/leader" requiring an amalgamation of uz (Turkic: "own"), bek ("master" or "leader") eponymously named after Oghuz Khagan, also known as Oghuz Beg A contraction of Uğuz, earlier Oğuz, that is, Oghuz (tribe), amalgamated with bek "oguz-leader". All three have the middle syllable/phoneme being cognate with Turkic title Beg. The name of the country was often spelled as ”Ўзбекистон” in Uzbek Cyrillic or “Узбекистан” in Russian during Soviet rule. History The first people known to have inhabited Central Asia were Scythians who