Tashkent/ Islamabad: Monitoring Desk – The third Tashkent International Investment Forum kick started in the beautiful and historical capital city of Tashkent in the Republic of Uzbekistan. President of the Shavkat Mirziyoyev in his inaugural address to the participants of the forum apprised them of investment friendly environment and policies of the government of Uzbekistan. The President outlined the future strategy of the government to further improve the the procedures , rules and regulations to attract foreign direct investments to this emerging economy of Central Asia.
The New Uzbekistan is a rapidly developing, just and secular country with vast opportunities. More than 2500 foreign guests from 93 countries are attending the event that clearly confirms the growing importance of the Forum. This is a sign of a huge interest in reforms that have become irreversible in the country, in establishing mutually beneficial cooperation.
Uzbekistan is launching new large-scale projects with world-renowned companies in this forum, such as “Linde”, “Orascom”, “DataVolt”, “Bonafarm”, “Pasha Holding” and others. The President expressed his deep and sincere gratitude to foreign investors and all our partners who contribute to this work.
The forum is becoming a great annual tradition, new and reliable partners from all continents of the world are gathering in Uzbekistan. Over the past three years, this Forum has provided a broad platform for enhancing collaboration, discussing pressing issues, and generating fruitful ideas and solutions to tackle the most urgent challenges.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev welcomed the guests in his inaugural address and shed light on the prospects of the forum. He said, “Our conference is taking place in period of increasing global geopolitical and economic problems, challenges and threats to the sustainable development. The world order is undergoing deep transformation.Disruptions of supply chains of goods and services, decrease in international trade and investment flows, an exacerbation of climate disasters clearly demonstrate how unstable the situation is becoming.”
Uzbekistan, In the past few years, have attracted over 60 billion dollars in foreign investments. According to the details shared by the President in his address, more than 14 billion dollars from international financial institutions have been directed to social and infrastructure projects. The volume of foreign investments nearly doubled last year.
Notable increases are clear in the fields of energy with companies like “Acwa Power”, “Masdar”, “Total Eren”, “Voltalia”, “Calik”, and “Aksa”; in the chemical industry with “Air Products”, “Indorama”, and “Kamse”; in construction and metallurgy with “Orano” and “Danieli”; in automotive and electrical engineering with “BYD”, “KIA”, and “Samsung”; and in construction with “Koch” and “Knauf” along with other leading global companies. Together, we have initiated over 300 investment and industrial projects, and created hundreds of thousands of new jobs, which I highlight with great gratitude.
One the other side, as mentioned by the President, “The growth rates of the world economy have been declining for the past three years. The trends related to the foreign direct investments are not meeting expectations either. In 2023, the total volume of investments in developing countries decreased by 9%.”
The President rightly said that no country can solve such problems alone. The spirit of mutual trust and respect, and the principle of mutual support remain solid pillars of long-term cooperation. He , in this regard, shared the example of Uzbekistan where decisive steps to fundamentally improve the investment and business environment, and to eliminate obstacles step by step. Uzbekistan is implementing comprehensive reforms to ensure that every entrepreneur feels free and confident.
As mentioned by the President, Uzbekistan, 7 years ago, embarked on uneasy, but systemic reforms with big aims. Identified the liberalization of the economy, the creation of a favorable investment climate, and the broadening of opportunities for entrepreneurs as our main objectives.In recent years, economy has nearly doubled. Last year alone, growth rates reached 6 percent, while inflation remained below 9 percent. The trade turnover is steadily increasing. The stability of the national currency and foreign exchange reserves are being maintained.
The President highlighted new specific measures in other priority areas to support entrepreneurship and business. Foreign investors will be exempted from taxes on dividends received from shares for a period of three years.
1- New law on privatization that is actually a new program, has been adopted, which includes the sale of state shares in 250 major companies, the privatization of 1,000 real estates and listing via IPO the shares of 12 companies.
2- Uzbekistan has established a stability rating for entrepreneurs. High-rated entrepreneurial subjects will not undergo tax audits.
3- Uzbekistan has streamlined the implementation of public-private partnership projects in energy sector and plan to expand this experience to other social and infrastructure sectors as well.
Particularly, irrigation and road projects with the Chinese companies “CITIC” and “Camce”, drinking water supply projects with French companies “Suez” and “Veolia”, and the establishment of modern medical facilities with the Arab companies “InterHealth” and “Pure Health” are in progress.
4- Attached great importance to the development of the infrastructure of industrial zones through budgetary allocations.
5 -Introduced modern transparent mechanisms for allocating land to entrepreneurs, namely through auctions.
6 -In order to improve legislation and join the World Trade Organization, Uzbekistan has adopted more than 60 regulatory documents. An agency to combat corruption has been established, and the National Strategy for 2030 is being developed.
9 -The Tashkent International Arbitration Centre has been successfully operating with the aim of fairly resolving disputes. It includes more than 90 reputable arbitrators from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, China, and the United Arab Emirates.
10 – A visa-free travel regime has been introduced for more than 90 countries.
Another important indicator for investors: over the past seven years the enrollment rate in higher education has increased from 9 percent to 42 percent, and the number of higher education institutions has reached 200.
Uzbekistan is committed to developing market economy, ensuring reliable protection of investors’ rights, further improving the favorable investment and business environment, creating more comfortable conditions for fair competition, ensuring the protection of private property and
the independence of the judicial system. These initiatives had been enshrined in the new Constitution adopted by the referendum last year.
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The President presented a number of specific proposals to strengthen the protection of investors’ rights.
Firstly, Uzbekistan will adopt the new Law “On Investments”. This document has been developed in accordance with the regulations and standards of the World Trade Organization. President expressed special gratitude to the EBRD, World Bank, IMF, and OECD for their close cooperation.
Secondly, the International Commercial Court will start operating in the near future under the auspices of the Center for the Development of Digital Technologies.
This court will have a special place in Uzbekistan’s legal system. Therefore, the state will adopt special legislation in the near future. Uzbekistan will also include standards for the execution of decisions of international commercial courts in procedural codes.
Thirdly, The country will soon introduce significant changes in the system of industrial zones. More favorable conditions will be created for investors to implement high-tech projects.
The President further shared that the activities of operators in managing industrial zones, especially attracting highly qualified foreign companies, will be expanded. The restrictions for the operation of special economic zones will also be eliminated. The term for leasing the land to foreign investors will be doubled (from 25 to 49 years). The benefits and preferences guaranteed by law will fully remain. All of these issues will be discussed in detail at the upcoming meeting of the Foreign Investors Council.
“Uzbekistan-2030” strategy is being adopted in order to continue systemic reforms, build strong and welfare state.
100 specific tasks have been identified in this document to achieve sustainable economic growth, provide social protection, preserve health, improve education system, as well as to ensure the rule of law.
President said, “By 2030, our goal is to double the people’s income and join the ranks of the upper-middle income countries. We will continue with deep transformation processes in the economy, creating favorable investment and business environments, and increasing value-added production in industry.”
President described salient features of the strategy as :
Firstly. “Green” energy. Expanding the energy sector is crucial for the prosperity of our entire region. In this regard, work is underway on 28 projects in our country. By 2030, we aim to create renewable energy capacity exceeding 20 gigawatts and increase its share in the energy balance to 40 percent.
Last year alone, Uzbekistan launched large wind and solar power plants with a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts in partnership with our strategic partners “MASDAR”, “GEZHOUBA”, and “CHINA ENERGY”. Additionally, the country initiated a project to produce “green hydrogen” with “ACWA POWER”. The most notable aspect is that these significant projects are being implemented based on public-private partnership and directly through foreign investments.
Today, during the Forum, Uzbekistan is presenting joint projects to build hydroelectric power stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for our investors. The leading companies have been invited from all countries to open dialogue and practical cooperation in this direction.
Secondly. Banking sector. In recent years, numerous private banks have been established in our country. Leading European banks have entered our market. Several digital banks are now operational.
During this Forum the agreement was signed with the EBRD to privatize one of Uzbekistan’s leading banks, “Asakabank”. Similarly, the transformation and privatization processes of leading banks continue in cooperation with the IMF, ADB and other major international financial institutions.
The approaches to the development of the capital market are being reviewed to meet the demand for financial resources.Work is underway to modernize international financial instruments in Uzbekistan.
President expressed that Uzbekistan is eagerly anticipate increased foreign investments, improvement of corporate governance, and the entry of new financial institutions into the country.
Thirdly. Critical minerals. Uzbekistan is rich in mineral resources and critical raw materials. Our country has large reserves of gold, copper, tungsten, silver, and uranium.
Uzbekistan is particularly interested in paying attention to the reserves of rare and rare-earth metals, including lithium, magnesium, molybdenum, germanium, vanadium, and indium, among others.Last month, strategic cooperation in critical minerals was established with the European Union. We are also actively working with the United States and the United Kingdom to sign documents in this area.A new Law on Subsoil will be adopted. It will be based on modern international practice.
President invited the leading companies to Uzbekistan to implement projects on deep processing of strategic raw materials and creating high value-added chains.
Fourthly. Digital transformation of the country. The export of IT services and software products has doubled within a year. Uzbekistan aims to increase this indicator to $5 billion in the future. The number of IT park residents will increase tenfold, 100,000 new jobs will be created soon.
Moreover, on IT park basis the Center for the Development of Digital Technologies is being created for foreign companies. In collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s “Data Volt” Uzbekistan is working on establishing Data Centre that works on “green” energy. This will significantly contribute to the digitalization of our economy and the introduction of technologies based on artificial intelligence.
Fifthly. Development of transport infrastructure. Uzbekistan pays special attention to creating convenient and modern transport systems.
Substantial reforms are being made in the railway sector with opening wide opportunities for private investors. The joint projects are being developed to build toll roads and high-speed railways.Efforts are being made to modernize Tashkent, Bukhara and Urgench international airports, and build new ones with the participation of qualified foreign investors.
Uzbekistan has started initial work on the construction of railways China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan with our foreign partners. These strategic projects will fundamentally change the geo-economy of the region and will transform Central Asia into the global transit center that connects North and South, East and West.
The President at the conclusion of his keynote address, invited investors and international organizations to participate in these major regional projects to revive the Great Silk Road on modern foundations.
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