Uzbekistan Aims to Attract More Foreign Investors Through Economy Reforms
KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 (Bernama) -- Uzbekistan will strive to attract more foreign investments through comprehensive national economy reforms, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
“Our main goal is to make Uzbekistan a reliable and long-term partner for foreign investors.
“Our country is committed to developing market economy, ensuring reliable protection of investors' rights, further improving the favourable investment and business environment, creating more comfortable conditions for fair competition, ensuring the protection of private property and the independence of the judicial system,” he said in his address at the Third Tashkent International Investment Forum on Thursday.
His text was made available to Bernama by the Uzbekistan Embassy in Malaysia.
Mirziyoyev said the country embarked on a systemic reform seven years ago to liberalise the economy, creating a favourable investment climate and broadening opportunities for entrepreneurs.
“In recent years, our economy has nearly doubled. Last year alone, growth rates reached 6.0 per cent, while inflation remained below 9.0 per cent.
“The trade turnover is steadily increasing. The stability of the national currency and foreign exchange reserves are being maintained,” he said.
He said that in the past few years, Uzbekistan has attracted over US$60 billion in foreign investments, while more than than US$14 billion from international financial institutions have been directed to social and infrastructure projects.
The volume of foreign investments nearly doubled last year.
The President emphasised that in order to strengthen the protection of investors' rights, the country is making several initiatives, including adopting the new Law On Investments, which has been developed in accordance with the regulations and standards of the World Trade Organisation, as well as introducing the International Commercial Court.
“This court will have a special place in Uzbekistan's legal system. Therefore, we will adopt special legislation in the near future. We will also include standards for the execution of decisions of international commercial courts in procedural codes,” he said.
The government will also introduce significant changes in the system of industrial zones to provide more favourable conditions for investors to implement high-tech projects.
Mirziyoyev also highlighted the ‘Uzbekistan-2030’ strategy which aimed to propel the country into an upper-middle income country by 2030 through deep transformation processes in the country, creating favourable investment and business environments, and increasing value-added production in industry.
He said the strategy will focus on strategic cooperation with foreign partners in the development of the green energy industry, banking sector, critical minerals, digital transformation and development of transport infrastructure.
“Work is underway to modernise international financial instruments in Uzbekistan.
“We eagerly anticipate increased foreign investments, improvement of corporate governance, and the entry of new financial institutions into the country,” he said.
Over 500 participants from 93 countries attended the event.
-- BERNAMA
