Page 24 - Demo Faces

“I might not be the most popular man in Uzbekistan anymore:
the developers don’t like me
and neither do the banks or the construction companies. But over the medium to long term, it’s the right thing to do, and it’s really going to make a positive impact in the country.”
Peter Marro
Advisor, Central and West Asia Department; and ADB Very Innovative Person
Transforming Uzbekistan’s housing nance market
The challenge: Uzbekistan’s housing nance policy was unfocused, dysfunctional, and unsustainable. It was going to cost the government up to $4 billion over the next 3 years to maintain its housing policies and get the same, suboptimal results for those who needed help the most: poorer families in rural areas.
The innovation: Launch a sector development program combining a $50 million policy loan and a $150 million project loan to reform the housing nance market and set up a nancial intermediary to enable private sector banks to enter the mortgage market more broadly.
The story: In 2017, when Peter Marro landed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan for the rst time, the country had already used
a $1 billion ADB loan to build more than 30,000 homes in rural Uzbekistan. When he and his colleagues travelled to the rural areas, they saw rows of modest, functional, and identical houses, and met satis ed families living in them.
However, he made a troubling discovery: the way many of the recipients were chosen didn’t seem to be based on a fair and transparent system. It became clear that the homes weren’t being provided to those who needed them most: families with low incomes.
24