Page 7 - Uzbekistan rising bne IntelliNews special report

bne December 2021 Special Report: Uzbekistan Rising I 7
Tashkent conference aims to lure new investors
years. The country has been doing its best to demonstrate the effectiveness of reforms initiated by incumbent leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev. With less than a month left befor the next presidential elections, Mirziyoyev’s government organised a massive international Economic Forum 2021 held in Tashkent on September 29 to showcase progress made so far and the privatisation of SOEs and banks already achieved.
The event, held with the support and high-level participation of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), brought together in an in- person setting around 300 participants -including top members of the Uzbek government, international business and financial communities, international and regional multilateral development institutions, policymakers and NGOs.
“A lot of opportunities have already launched
in renewable energy. The government aims to reach 25% renewable energy in the near future”
Muzaffar Ismailov in Tashkent
U
According to Anna Bjerde Vice President, Europe and Central Asia World Bank (WB), no country in the world has achieved so much in such
a short space of time as Uzbekistan has.
Next generation of reforms
Bjerde shared her view on what the government should focus on next. The first step is the continuation
of diversification, as the country is still dependent on agriculture.
Even though there has been job creation from the economic growth of recent years the unemployment level
zbekistan’s opening up has been a hot story for the inter-
national press in the last few
remains high at about 10.5% and more needs to be done to boost economic expansion. The most important step within the next generation of reforms, according to her, is to expand the
role of the private sector. Another direction that the government should focus on is natural resources.
“A lot of opportunities have already launched in renewable energy. The government aims to reach 25% renew- able energy in the near future. But natu- ral resource management needs more attention when it comes to pollution and water management,” Bjerde said.
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