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directed at geological exploration works for the project.
Gold, estimated to make up around 20% of Tashkent’s exports, is not the only point of interest for Turkey, which has also been actively investing in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Uzbekistan’s state-run nuclear energy coordinator UzAtom’s press service said last week that a number of companies from Turkey are exploring the possibility of constructing solar and wind power plants along with combined-cycle power plants in Uzbekistan, as the entire Former Soviet Union (FSU) increasingly embraces renewable energy.
The Central Asian nation wants
to increase exports of agricultural products to EU countries amongst other directions and food processing is a very prospective industry. China, meanwhile, one of the major trade partners of the Central Asian region, is also seeing growing demand for non-GMO food.
Telecoms is another sector that was developed early, but has been plagued by problems – not least the hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes demanded by Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of former president Karimov, how is now report- edly under house arrest for her crimes.
Local Uzbek media reports from last
week indicated that the Swedish telecom company Ericsson is considering resuming its operations in Uzbekistan following a seven-year hiatus, citing the company’s general director for Central Asia and Mongolia, Aydin Abzhanbekov, as saying during an Uzbek-Swedish business forum. Ericsson has operated in Uzbekistan since 1998 until suspending its services in 2012 when the country was ruled by autocrat Islam Karimov.
“At the moment, we are establishing and restoring contacts with potential customers in the country,” Abzhanbekov said, according to the report.
Uzbekistan is working hard to trade in its “former Soviet Republic” image and return to the sparkle of “ancient Silk Road way station” to develop tourism. Tourism is a very ancient business for Uzbekistan indeed. The legendary city of Samarkand attracted the likes of Alexan- der the Great, who famously said: “See Samarkand and then you can die.” The government is now throwing everything
“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”
The potential projects were discussed on February 14 at a meeting featuring Energy Minister of Uzbekistan Alisher Sultanov and Deputy Minister of Energy and Natu- ral Resources of Turkey Mithat Zhansiz.
The Uzbek government is hoping to gen- eration approximately 20% of the coun- try's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2032 and its geography is ideal for solar and wind power. Uzbeki- stan hopes to eventually increase its total renewable electricity generation to 9,343mn kWh and the Uzbek state-run energy firm Uzbekenergo plans to invest a total $4.4bn in 14 projects this year.
Agriculture is also a big focus for poten- tial investors. Earlier this month, Uzbeki- stan and France signed a memorandum to create two laboratories for identifying products containing genetically modi- fied organisms (GMOs) along with toxic organic compounds. Uzbekistan has been diversifying its agriculture sector away from the decades of dependence on monocropping cotton and increasing the production of other agricultural
food products.
Next stop WTO
The next step in open the republic to the world will be to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Deputy director general of the WTO Alan Wolfe, said in February that Uzbekistan may join the global trade club within two years and the government is already actively negotiating with the other member countries on its entry terms.
Uzbekistan launched its WTO campaign last year. In December, President Mirziyoyev appointed Badriddin Abidov as “deputy minister of foreign trade of Uzbekistan on issues of Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)”. Despite previously indicating a commitment to protectionist policies, Mirziyoyev has been gradually dismantling barriers to free trade.
On October 30, Mirziyoyev signed a decree aimed at introducing more measures to liberalise trade and promote competition for Uzbekistan's domestic producers. Specifically, the decree abolishes licensing of wholesale activities, “special taxation” of trade enterprises and requirements to “record revenues” from sales of certain excisable goods. These changes were introduced on 1 January 2019.
Additionally, the Central Asian nation said it would cancel the requirement
to take out consumer loans for the purchasing of exclusively Uzbek-produced consumer goods and services. The country’s strict currency controls were abolished in 2017.
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