Why is this important
The financing provides Uzbekistan with space for key transformations without excessive debt pressure. This is an opportunity to accelerate growth, support the poor, and increase the competitiveness of the economy.
What is to be done with the money?
- Increase in compensation for low-income families: from 270 thousand to 1 million soums per year for electricity, gas and heating
- Strengthening the protection of women: new norms against harassment, prohibition of dismissal due to pregnancy or having children
- Reforms of the state sector: creation of the National Investment Fund, privatization, increasing the efficiency of state-owned enterprises
- Independent regulator in the telecommunications sphere, reducing the dominance of state communications, attracting investments
- Agriculture: producer insurance, price flexibility for cotton, direct purchase of raw materials by factories from farmers
- Foreign trade policy reforms: accelerating WTO accession, simplifying export procedures, eliminating exclusions in energy and chemical industries
- Energy reforms: opening of a distribution market, participation of private investors, green technologies, strengthening energy efficiency
Context and challenges
The $800 million package is not news: the World Bank has already reported on such support as part of the “Development Policy Operation” reform. The World Bank’s projects in Uzbekistan have already exceeded
