Most dynamic developments of securities market started in 1993, when the government launched medium & mass privatization and securtisation of the State Owned Enterprises. Government agencies (Center for Coordination of Securities Market, Ministry of Finance and State Committee of Privatization) are working hard to improve the Uzbekistan’s young equity market.

While survey respondents were positive about digital opportunities in the country, many expressed concerns regarding infrastructure and skills. The process of digitalisation will profoundly shape Uzbekistan’s economy and society in the years to come, just as it is doing across the OECD. Ensuring access to high-quality connectivity infrastructure and raising the level of digital skills in the workforce are essential for enabling the private sector to make the most of the opportunities of digitalisation.

This chapter presents the potential role of green bonds in financing Uzbekistan’s green transition, the priority sectors for green bond issuance and barriers that potential issuers face. Non-sovereign issuers, notably subnational governments and corporate entities, face barriers in terms of the country’s existing regulatory requirements and persistent knowledge and expertise gaps, but there is considerable potential for the use of the instrument to finance these issuers’ green projects. Other bond-like instruments, such as green sukuks, an Islamic fixed-income instrument, could prove effective at mobilising domestic demand and offer an alternative financing mechanism if regulatory hurdles to the development of Islamic finance in Uzbekistan are removed. The energy sector, particularly renewable power generation projects, is the sector with the most potential for green bond issuances, but agriculture, transport, housing and water management projects could benefit as well.

The purpose of the OECD private sector survey of Uzbekistan, conducted by the OECD in 2022, was to collect new firm-level insights into the ongoing reform process to support the business climate in the country. The survey provides additional input for the OECD and the Government to consider when reflecting on the effectiveness and direction of the reform process. This chapter introduces the survey, its methodology, and a number of high-level observations that emerged from the process.

This report analyses planned infrastructure projects, decision-making frameworks related to infrastructure development and strategic planning documents in eight countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It compares current investment flows with countries' national development objectives to identify misalignments and provides policy-makers with recommendations to improve the integration of climate change and other environmental concerns into infrastucture development decision-making processes. The report presents a comprehensive overview of infrastructure investment, primarily in the transport and energy sectors, throughout the region and identifies the risks and opportunities emerging from current investment patterns.

Respondents to the survey raised a number of concerns relating to the ease of trade in Uzbekistan. These concerns dovetail with a large body of work the OECD has conducted, in co-operation with the government, on issues around trade facilitation and connectivity. Despite the geographical connectivity penalties Uzbekistan faces due to its double landlocked status, the country has potential to be an attractive destination for market-seeking investment: a large and expanding population, nestled in the midst of a number of other small but potentially high-growth markets. Yet, for both domestic and international firms to harness potential market opportunities, there remains much to be done to lower the cost of trade and raise awareness of external opportunities for the domestic private sector. This chapter introduces a number of insights from the survey, before giving an overview of recent progress, opportunities, and challenges in trade facilitation and export promotion in Uzbekistan.

The government of Uzbekistan launched a wide-ranging programme of reforms in 2017 in order to accelerate the transition to an open, market-based economy. The country is now on a pathway to a sounder economic and fiscal footing, but the success of these strategic ambitions depends on the resolution of long-standing issues in the business climate. Addressing these issues is also critical to enabling the broader structural transformation of the country’s economy, which despite having started in the mid-1990s, remains at a relatively early stage.

Responses to the survey suggest that firms consider ongoing legal and regulatory reforms to support the business climate in Uzbekistan to be moving in the right direction. At the same time, respondents note that there remains significant work to be done both on the implementation of these reforms, and on additional and complementary pro-competition reforms. These views are in line with OECD analysis on a number of areas highlighted by respondents, such as overall framework conditions for business, taxation, and competition policy. While the legal and regulatory environment for business in Uzbekistan has improved significantly developed since 2017, reducing many unnecessary fixed costs of doing business, the survey highlights a number of areas where more work is necessary to foster private sector development.

This chapter assesses recent achievements trade facilitation reforms in Uzbekistan, while also considering the remaining challenges. It highlights the progress made in establishing the Single Window, reducing tariffs, streamlining trade-related documentation, implementing automation procedures, and creating stakeholder engagement and feedback mechanisms. Subsequently, the outstanding issues in procedural streamlining, process automation, and agency co-operation are assessed. Finally, the chapter addresses the importance of drawing inspiration from, and collaborating with, neighbouring peers to further progress in trade facilitation performance.

This chapter assesses progress made and challenges ahead in the three priority areas for reform identified in 2020, namely the investment climate, the operational environment for businesses, and taxation, considering the impact of the pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Progress has been made in particular in clarifying the regulatory framework for investment, making the business environment easier to navigate for firms, and digitalising tax services.

Uzbekistan has 55 tax agreements in force as reported in its response to the Peer Review questionnaire. Five of those agreements comply with the minimum standard.

The Constitution of Uzbekistan prohibits all forms of discrimination and provides for equal rights for men and women. In reality, a very strong patriarchal tradition affects the role of women both in the family and within society in general. Moreover, the resurgent nationalist movement has reinforced traditional gender stereotypes. Fewer than three-quarters of Uzbek women believe they have the same rights as men.

We have conventional understanding among professionals on the need to eliminate issuance, use, transfer and retention of paper securities without delay. As a result, from the year of 1999 all important institutions made efforts to implement electronic document turnover, and finally from the August 2002 most of documents among stock exchange, clearing house, central depository and custodians have been circulated in electronic form.

This chapter provides the necessary context to understand the scale of the challenges that Uzbekistan faces in pursuing its green transition and the gap between available financing and the estimated sums required. Uzbekistan’s economy is dynamic and growing, but also highly energy- and GHG-intensive. The Government of Uzbekistan has set ambitious targets for the country in terms of economic development and climate change mitigation, but the scale of the economic transformation required to meet these targets requires sizeable investments, particularly in infrastructure. This transition will necessitate a major shift in Uzbekistan’s existing infrastructure systems, especially its fossil fuel-reliant energy sector. By facilitating private investment, including from international sources, in projects that satisfy growing demand for infrastructure services without exacerbating existing environmental problems, Uzbekistan has an opportunity to establish itself as a regional leader in sustainable development. Such projects could, for instance, seek to harness Uzbekistan’s large renewable energy potential.

This chapter describes sustainable infrastructure planning in Uzbekistan and presents current trends in investment in large-scale infrastructure projects. It compares Uzbekistan’s infrastructure plans in the energy, transport, industry and water sectors against its international commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The chapter also explores Uzbekistan’s strategic documents for long-term economic development, sectoral development and the environment, including those related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It identifies misalignments between stated goals and observed investment flows and provides recommendations to improve strategic planning for sustainable infrastructure.

Устранение преград на пути развития частного сектора является долгосрочной целью правительства Узбекистана, а начавшаяся в 2017 году масштабная программа реформ предусматривала более активное содействие росту конкурентоспособности и производительности компаний частного сектора. Чтобы справиться с вызовами и воспользоваться возможностями «зеленого» и цифрового переходов, которые обеспечивают новый импульс для ускорения этих реформ, Узбекистану необходим более динамичный и инновационный частный сектор. Настоящий отчет, основанный на результатах небольшого целевого опроса иностранных компаний, работающих на территории Узбекистана, дает новое представление об их восприятии текущих реформ и тем самым привлекает внимание к некоторым из наиболее актуальных проблем, стоящих перед органами, отвечающими за разработку и реализацию мер экономической политики, и бизнесом.