Page 22 - bne_March2019_20190306 magazine

22 I Cover story bne March 2019
The opening up of the Uzbek economy has foreign investors excited and beating a track to Tashkent.
Floods of foreign companies coming
to Uzbekistan to implement projects
Kanat Shaku in Almaty
The opening of Uzbekistan has caught the headlines as the coun- try moves out of its hibernation and attempts to join the global market. Most of the attention has been on the current ruling regime’s reform drive, culminating in the country’s smash hit sovereign bond debut this month. That interest has now turned into a flood of trips by leading companies to explore the opportunities on offer in Central Asia’s most populous country and, as the only one of the five ‘Stans to share
a boarder with all the others, the regions natural production base. Executives are arriving in Tashkent to see how serious the Central Asian nation’s efforts to open the country really are.
The government doesn't really need
to issue a bond as debt is low and its reserves are large. The issue was more of a calling card for international investors
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and a benchmarking exercise to allow the leading corporate to price their up coming bonds. Investors flocked en mass to buy up Uzbekistan’ 5-year and 10 year notes this month and foreign companies appear to be as hungry to implement projects in the ex-Soviet state of 32mn people.
Welters of reports on exploratory meetings have been coming out of Tashkent. Thanks to its large population – the third largest in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and one
of the fastest growing – Uzbekistan
has a relatively diversified economy. In addition to the traditional cotton farming (cotton is part of the national emblem), the deserts in the middle of the country are replete with minerals – especially gold. Its agricultural potential is large. The population make the basis for an attractive consumer business and one of
the few things the former president Islam Karimov did organize is a well developed automotive industry, based in Andijan that exports low cost cars to the other CIS markets, and Russia in particular.
Reports from this month alone includ- ed an agreement on geological explora- tion and pilot production at prospective areas for gold and tungsten mining signed between the Geological Survey of Turkey (MTA) and the Uzbek government. The project areas include Sarytau, Khurob and Aydym-Djetimuu fields in Uzbekistan’s Navoi Region and Jizzakh Region.
The sides plan to carry out “aerogeo- physical work, remote sensing, geo- chemical analysis of samples, geochemi- cal prospecting, map-composition work and well drilling” within the three deposits this year. As much as $2mn
in foreign direct investment will be