11.07.2023

On July 11, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on further development of investment attraction.

At the outset of his speech, the President noted that the presidential elections in our country were held at a high level, which further rallied our people on the path to great goals.

The next task is to implement the set goals without delay and with even greater zeal. This will not be easy in the current era of conflicts and fierce competition, when trade and investment flows are becoming more and more complicated, there are disruptions in the movement of goods and services, in the transport and logistics system.

“In such a difficult situation, in order to create decent conditions for our people, we need to create hundreds of thousands of well-paid jobs, increase the production that can compete on the world market. This requires new technologies, modern production facilities and qualified specialists”, the President said.

In this regard, the investment performance of industries and regions, the implementation of projects and priority tasks for the period up to the end of the year were considered at the meeting.

In the last six months of this year, $3.6 billion of investments were disbursed in the industries. More than $50 million in direct investment was attracted to Andijan, Bulakbashi, Romitan, Gallyaaral, Farish, Karmana, Davlatabad, Chust, Kattakurgan, Syrdarya districts. Due to this, a total of 50 thousand new jobs and sources of income for an additional 1 trillion Uzbek soums were created in these areas.

However, in some regions and industries this indicator is low, the investment climate is in an unsatisfactory state. At the meeting, the khokims of these regions and cities, deputy ministers, the heads of state enterprises were dismissed from their posts, and some of them were reprimanded.

The President set additional tasks to accelerate 1.5 thousand investment projects and develop more than $12 billion in foreign investment.

The President outlined a clear algorithm for attracting investment and implementing projects in each industry and region.

In particular, as part of the State Investment Program, project work will be organized for the early commissioning of 272 large facilities worth $11.5 billion.

For example, 29 projects can be launched earlier by accelerating construction, and 49 by supporting the delivery and installation of equipment. As a result, $700 million of investment will be disbursed 2-3 months earlier.

The Minister of Transport and the country’s ambassadors abroad were instructed in this regard. It was noted that in addition to the 1.2 trillion Uzbek soums earmarked for infrastructure projects in the regions, another $100 million will be allocated.

It is necessary to manage $4.4 billion of foreign direct investment in 230 projects in the industry, and another $4.6 billion in 1.2 thousand projects in the regions. The projects will be divided into 3 categories and considered individually. Thus, large projects will be supervised by the deputy khokim of the region for investments, medium projects - by the khokim of the district, small ones - by the deputy khokim of the district for investments. In order to effectively implement this system and solve issues on the ground, the responsible officials will be assigned to each region.

Besides, the results of investment partnerships with foreign countries were discussed at the meeting. Over the past two years, the high-level meetings have resulted in many agreements with Saudi Arabia, France, Hungary, Singapore, Egypt, Germany, China, Italy, Qatar and other countries.

Positive changes in cooperation with Hungary, Pakistan, Thailand, the Czech Republic and Japan have been noted, and investment from these countries has increased by $450 million this year.

A new system of working with investors within the framework of agreements with foreign partners will now be introduced. The position of an investment manager will be created in the Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade, reporting directly to the minister. Managers will maintain constant contact with foreign investors and solve their issues. It was noted that it is possible to attract an additional $3 billion of investments this year working on the basis of this system.

It is pointed out that the investment projects created in most regions, districts and cities do not correspond to their real potential. In particular, over the past two months, opportunities for 2,000 promising projects worth $6.5 billion have been found in 60 areas with a low level of industrial development. This represents an average investment of $110 million and hundreds of jobs in a single area.

With this in mind, the task was set to work with consulting companies to create new projects based on the principle of "research - development - implementation". A regional investment forum will be held in each region before the end of the year to present these projects to foreign investors.

The Government Commission has also prepared 97 large-scale industrial projects that will give a major boost to the economy. These projects will make it possible to invest $6.7 billion, produce goods worth $3 billion, and create more than 27, 000 jobs.

The Government Commission has been instructed to launch these projects as soon as possible and to use foreign loans effectively.

Deputy prime ministers, ministers and khokims briefed the meeting on the issues discussed.