06.05.2022

On May 6, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on the development of the electrical industry.

Over the past five years, $465 million has been invested in the industry and 163 new projects have been launched. Production increased 4 times, and exports tripled. Most importantly, the number of jobs doubled and reached 32 thousand.

However, there are many unused opportunities in the field. The Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan set a goal to double the production of electrical products and triple exports by 2026.

The meeting discussed important tasks in this direction.

In particular, 86 projects worth $250 million are planned to be launched this year. The President stressed the necessity to study the needs of the population and the composition of imports, the production of relevant products, and the formation of new projects in the regions.

New deposits are being opened in our country, and copper reserves are expanding. According to calculations, copper production will increase by 2 times in the coming years. In accordance with this, in the new copper cluster in the Akhangaran district, processing capacities of 90 thousand tons of copper will be created within the framework of 12 projects worth $168 million. Enterprises participating in this cluster will be given the opportunity to purchase copper under long-term contracts at a discount to market prices.

The President gave instructions on the organizational and financial aspects of the work of this cluster.

As it is known, alternative energy is being developing in our country. New projects in this area require components of at least $1 billion. With this in mind, it is essential to expand the localization of components; it was noted at the meeting.

The goal is to develop a special programme to install water heating systems in social institutions and street lighting based on alternative sources of energy.

The industry has a large export potential. Thus, neighboring countries annually purchase electrical products worth billions of dollars. However, the share of goods produced in Uzbekistan in their imports is small.

It was noted that the industry’s exports could reach $700 million this year and $1 billion next year. To this end, it was instructed to establish a system of processing in the customs territory on the example of household appliances.

It is planned to allocate 20 billion Uzbek sum to the Electrotechnical Fund to implement innovations in the industry and expand exports.

The responsible agencies have been instructed about the vitality of preventing low-quality products from entering the domestic market, as well as introducing a system of labelling of household appliances.

Instructions have been given for the organization of the Design and Engineering Center at the Association «Uzeltehsanoat», as well as Research and development centers on the basis of the enterprises «Electroapparat», «Technopark», «Artel» and «Uzkabel» to attract qualified foreign and local professionals.

The training issues were discussed at the meeting. In the next three years, the industry will need 4,000 specialists with higher education and 14,000 workers with secondary education.

The Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education has been instructed to review and improve the educational program on electrical engineering. It was decided to devolve on the Association «Uzeltechsanoat» the Tashkent Radio Technical College, the Samarkand and Chirchik Technical Schools, Fergana Electrotechnical College.