09.04.2025

On April 9, a video-conference meeting dedicated to the issues of increasing tourism potential of the regions and accelerating implementation of projects with foreign investments was held under the chairmanship of the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

In recent years the export of touristic services in our country increased by 1.6 times reaching $3,5 billion. More than 2 thousand new entrepreneurs started working in this field. Last year the number of foreign tourists reached more than 10 million for the first time.

Infrastructure of tourism and services is rapidly developing in the regions. In the past 8 years $6,5 billion was invested in the sphere, creating 130 thousand hotel rooms.

Today there are 20 touristic villages in our country. A new international ski resort is created at the mountaintop “Oltin bel” in Parkent district. 

Practically, given the historical, cultural and natural wealth of our country, the number of tourists can be increased by an additional 2-3 times. However, there are shortcomings in some regions, including inconvenient roads and transport connections, lack of entertainment venues and interesting tourist programs.

In this regard, the meeting discussed measures to identify local opportunities, increase the number of tourist destinations and improve conditions for tourists.

For example, a significant part of the territory of Saryasi district consists of mountains with great potential for winter tourism. Projects worth $200 million to build cable cars, hotels, trade and service facilities can be implemented there. Chartak district is also known for its beautiful nature and medicinal springs.

Responsible executives have been instructed to develop a program for the development of 36 such districts and cities on the basis of ethno-, gastronomic, medical, extreme, cultural-historical, pilgrimage, winter and agro-tourism.

Today, Uzbekistan's tourism opportunities are actively promoted on such reputable TV channels as BBC and Euronews, as well as at more than 20 international exhibitions. Visa procedures are being simplified and modern airplanes are being purchased.

At the meeting tasks have been set on utilizing these opportunities for attracting tourists from prospective markets and organizing direct flights.

Currently a National Unified Tourism Platform is being developed. Services on e-visa processing and purchasing tickets will be connected to it. It’s also planned to introduce a unified touristic card ensuring access to all historical monuments.

In the recent years the attention to internal tourism has been increased, the number of local tourists reached 23 million. However most of the citizens still haven’t travelled to other regions.

In this context one weekend per month will be announced “days of travel with family and colleagues”. The winners of youth contests will be awarded trip vouchers “Travel in Uzbekistan”. 

One more area – work with the cultural heritage objects. In the past 4 years restoration and conservation of 327 of such complexes was conducted. Now additional 485 objects require repair. 

It was noted that private sector can be actively involved in such work and business-projects can be implemented. Tasks on improving mechanisms for renting objects of cultural heritage and digitalizing accounting of income from them have been set. 

The duration of higher education in tourism has been reduced from 4 to 3 years, and a dual system has been introduced. Now it is planned to organize internship and work of students abroad.

In general, it was noted that due to such measures this year it is possible to attract 15 million tourists and bring the export of tourist services up to $4 billion.

The second issue on the agenda of the meeting was the analysis of investment projects implemented in cooperation with foreign countries.

Only for the first quarter of this year during visits to the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Kuwait and France agreements were reached on 178 projects totaling $39 billion. At a recent summit in Samarkand, the European Union announced the allocation of 12 billion euros to Central Asia.

Considering this, it is planned to attract $42 billion of foreign investment in 2025. It is envisaged to implement 81 large, as well as more than 8 thousand medium and small projects, attracting $2 billion in grants from donor organizations and $6 billion from banks.

The meeting analyzed in detail the possibilities of attracting investments by regions and partner countries.

For example, in Altynsay district, which was previously unattractive for investors, where there is no railroad and main roads, three large projects worth $100 million are being implemented. In Kushrabat district two new projects on extraction and processing of granite worth $75 million have been launched. It was emphasized that there are such opportunities in every region with an appropriate approach.

Last month, “Investors' Day of Uzbekistan” was held in London, where agreements were reached on attracting 2 billion 770 million dollars. The need to hold similar events in such major centers as New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai, Tokyo and Istanbul has been noted.

It is planned that within the framework of a large-scale privatization program, state shares in 49 enterprises will be put on the international market, and 15 large state-owned enterprises will issue eurobonds. These measures are an excellent opportunity to attract foreign investment.

International investment forums will be held in April in Jizzakh and in June in Tashkent. The necessity to efficiently prepare a package of projects for presentation to investors was emphasized.

Due to the transition to a new system of work with international financial institutions, $706 million has been utilized since the beginning of the year. Projects in the spheres of thermal power engineering, regional electric networks, agriculture, road and railroad infrastructure have made significant progress.

At the same time, there were cases of late implementation or unreasonable delays. It was stated that henceforth, changes to completed projects should be considered exclusively by the government, and additional work should be carried out only after the completion of the main project, at the expense of savings.

Currently, jointly with international financial institutions, projects worth $20 billion are being implemented in the energy, transport, agriculture, communal and social spheres. Today, foreign partners widely support the reforms carried out in the country.

For example, representatives of the World Bank, EBRD, Asian Development Bank, French Development Agency and Islamic Development Bank visited the regions and agreed to finance projects worth $1.5 billion.

Deputy Prime Minister has been instructed to spread this experience to other regions and additionally develop projects for at least $3 billion.

During the meeting, proposals of ministers, khokims, ambassadors abroad and entrepreneurs of tourism industry were heard.