17.07.2024

On July 17, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a video conference devoted to the analysis of ensuring economic growth in regions and industries in the first half of the year, as well as to discuss priorities until the end of the year.

The Head of State announced the results achieved. For six months of this year, the gross domestic product grew by 6,4 percent. Industry grew by 7,8 percent, construction by 10,1 percent, services by 12,9 percent, agriculture by 3,8 percent. Budget revenues reached 113 trillion Uzbek soums, increasing by 14 percent.

In general, since the beginning of the year, the added value created in the republic has reached 567,4 trillion Uzbek soums, that is US $45,1 billion. This is the first time such a figure has been recorded.

Over the past period, total capital investment amounted to 229 trillion Uzbek soums. Of these, US $15,5 billion is foreign investment. Investments in Andijan, Bulakbashi, Karakul, Karmana, Davlatabad districts, Namangan and Samarkand have exceeded US $100 million, and in Sharaf Rashidov, Farish, Yanginamangan, Akhangaran districts – US $70 million.

Since the beginning of the year, 3 thousand projects worth US $3,5 billion have been launched, and 76 thousand high-paid permanent jobs have been created. Eighty-two trillion Uzbek soums of loans and 15,5 trillion Uzbek soums of grants have been allocated for entrepreneurship, and 600 thousand people are involved in business. Thanks to preferences and benefits, entrepreneurs were left with 56,3 trillion Uzbek soums.

The reforms in “green” energy have also begun to bear fruit. Ten solar and wind power plants with a capacity of 2,4 gigawatts have produced 1,6 billion kilowatts of “green” energy over the past six months. This saved half a billion cubic meters of gas.

This year alone, 31,5 trillion Uzbek soums have been allocated from the budget for the improvement of makhallas, kindergartens, schools, medicine, roads, water and electricity supply. An additional 1,5 trillion Uzbek soums will be allocated.

Over the past six months, 18,6 thousand new housing units have been built and completed. Some 7 trillion Uzbek soums of mortgage loans have been allocated to 26 thousand families. A total of 545 billion Uzbek soums have been allocated to cover the initial contribution and interest.

The Head of State stressed the need to analyze the existing problems and identify specific plans and tasks.

- Despite the difficult global situation, we are making concrete progress towards sustained economic growth. This is recognized by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and Heads of partner States, rating agencies, and major investors. However, today it will be useful to point out the shortcomings and define specific tasks for the use of reserves, - said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The issues of economy, finance, taxation, support of entrepreneurship and poverty reduction were first discussed.

As a result of experiments in Sayhunabad, Uychi, Zarbdor and Gijduvan in six months more than 4 thousand makhallas specialized in industry and agriculture appeared, 1 million 600 thousand people became officially employed, 712 thousand new income taxpayers were added.

The meeting identified measures to give new impetus to these processes. In particular, now khokims of districts, heads of banks and chairpersons of makhallas will conclude a trilateral agreement on joint work. Based on the Sayhunabad experience, a financial package will be offered to households by December 1 this year. This will provide employment for 495 thousand people. In the second half of the year, the program “Family entrepreneurship” will be increased by a factor of 1,5, under which 4 trillion Uzbek soums will be allocated.

According to the Uychi experience, district khokims and bank managers will meet with entrepreneurs and help them to expand their business. The khokim will deal with access to land, electricity, water, roads and other infrastructure, and the bank will deal with financing. It was noted that this would provide employment for 670 thousand people by the end of the year.

Based on the Gijduvan experience, a thousand multistory industrial buildings will be built by the end of the year. Production organized in households will be transferred there. Entrepreneurs working on the upper floors of these buildings will be granted tax incentives. This will create the conditions for the withdrawal of 140 thousand jobs from the shadow sector.

Based on the Zarbdor experience driving projects in the fields of industry, trade, services and modern agricultural technologies will be implemented in the districts. An additional 500 billion Uzbek soums will be allocated for their implementation this year. This will create another 150 thousand jobs.

The Prime Minister was instructed to approve the employment plan for 2 million 416 thousand people by the end of the year, using the four experiments.

Revenue generation was also addressed. The importance of increasing tax revenues through assistance to enterprises and entrepreneurs, increasing their incomes was emphasized. Responsible persons were strictly warned about the inadmissibility of charging from entrepreneurs payments and fees above the allotted.

The implementation of the privatization program was weak, and the work on reducing the cost of production in large enterprises was slow.

It was stressed that incentives and subsidies to entrepreneurs would now be granted for one year, subject to the achievement of the target, and would be extended or discontinued depending on the outcome.

This year, the regional enterprises produced production at 164 trillion Uzbek soums. However, in the city of Kagan, and Karaulbazar, Zafarabad and Mirzabad districts, industry decreased. The task of the responsible persons is to restore the full activity of 2 thousand enterprises by the end of the year.

Disciplinary measures were taken against 28 khokims of districts and cities that had suffered from systemic deficiencies. Khokims of the Karauzak, Takhiatash, Uchkuduk, Tashkent, Furkat, Gurlen, Mirzaabad, Yangyaryk, Mingbulak and Gazgan districts were dismissed.

The next issues on the agenda were transport, communications, construction and housing.

The issue of reduction of construction costs was analyzed. It was noted that in addition to land and building materials, difficulties in project coordination, obtaining special technical conditions affect the cost of production. It was pointed out that construction accounts for the largest share of the shadow economy.

In this regard, the Ministry of Construction was tasked with updating all procedures that hinder entrepreneurship in the sector.

The Inspectorate for Construction, Housing and Communal Services will be placed under the authority of the Government and its powers will be expanded in order to improve the quality and strengthen the order. Penalties for construction without a permit or with deviations from the project will be increased.

The procedure for entrepreneurs to obtain technical conditions for connection to the electricity and gas supply networks will be digitized. A system will be introduced to automate the selection of the connection point to the network, excluding the human factor.

This year’s Investment Program allocated 20,5 trillion Uzbek soums for 1,896 projects. In particular, it is planned to build and equip 618 schools, 176 kindergartens, 80 health clinics and 67 hospitals.

It is planned to build 2,152 high-rise buildings, to put into operation more than 100 thousand apartments as well as to improve water supply on 570 thousand hectares, put into operation 13 thousand kilometers of roads and 195 bridges.

The full implementation of the system of electronic payments in public transport, financing of passenger transport based on a gross contract in all regional centers were also considered.

The Head of the State separately referred to each of these directions and gave instructions to accelerate the projects whose implementation is delayed. People should feel the results of this socially significant work, the President stressed.

The meeting also discussed in detail investment, exports and agriculture.

In the last six months, US $15,5 billion of foreign investment has been invested in the economy, of which 14 billion is direct. The president drew attention to their impact.

Every dollar of foreign investment in three years has generated an average of three dollars in value added. Alternatively, every $1 thousand of foreign investment has increased tax revenue by an average of $600. However, in some industries and regions it is low.

The responsible persons were instructed to thoroughly analyze the results of the projects planned for next year.

It was indicated that 593 pieces of equipment worth US $183 million, which had been imported in the past, should be installed and put into operation as soon as possible. Measures to accelerate the start-up of protracted investment projects and to solve their problems were identified.

This year, 1,5 trillion Uzbek soums have been allocated for the infrastructure of industrial zones. In addition, banks have an available resource of US $650 million allocated from the Reconstruction and Development Fund, as well as US $1 billion raised from abroad. The need to use these funds effectively and to accelerate the implementation of projects was noted.

In six months, production under the localization program grew by 34 percent. The aim is to increase the share of domestic products in large investment projects.

In this regard, the khokims of the regions and industry leaders were instructed to analyze 200 large projects worth US $50 billion in the regions and to develop a program of localization of goods and services. The importance of increasing the participation of regional enterprises in the cooperation portal was emphasized.

During the analysis of export rates, it was noted that industries and regions have sold products abroad for US $8,7 billion since the beginning of the year. However, exports in nine regions did not reach even half of last year’s figure.

Recently, many countries have introduced tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect the domestic market. Relevant ministries and agencies were instructed to reach agreement on the mitigation of these barriers.

During the first half of this year, exports of horticultural and food products amounted to US $910 million. It was noted that exports of processed fruits and vegetables needed to be boosted first.

Currently, 382 projects have been launched to increase storage, sorting and processing capacity. By the end of the year, it is planned to build 10 agrologistics centers and refrigeration warehouses for 230 thousand tons. This will increase the capacity of the fruit and vegetable storage to 63 percent.

The Head of State stressed the need to create new varieties of seeds to increase exports. The Ministry of Agriculture was instructed to review the seed production system based on the experience of China and Turkey and to expand the gene bank of crops.

A three-year program will be developed to create industrial gardens and vineyards on 75 thousand hectares of inefficient gardens and 100 thousand hectares of low-yield land. A soft loan through the Agriculture Fund will be available for such gardens.

The meeting also addressed issues related to the financial sustainability of cotton and textile clusters. It was determined that the term of the soft loan granted to them will be extended until April 1, 2025, and a soft loan for the purchase of cotton this year will be granted to the spinning enterprises of clusters. The status of economically inefficient, highly unfulfilled clusters will be reviewed.

To increase productivity, the target is to increase the mechanization of cotton and horticulture to 50 percent. For this, by the end of the year, farmers and dehkans will receive another 6,5 thousand units of equipment.

At the meeting, the Heads of the complexes of the Cabinet of Ministers, ministers and khokims presented their reports. Plans for economic growth until the end of the year were reported.