Foreign investments in Uzbekistan year-to-date reached $ 4.2 billion, the Chairman of the Committee for Investments Azim Ahmedkhadzhayev announced at yesterday’s round table devoted to improving the Uzbekistan’s investment climate.

$3.7 billion from the total are foreign direct investments. Among the investors are companies from the USA, Turkey, South Korea, Germany, Russia and Japan, he noted.

While, in 2011-2016, the volume of foreign investment in Uzbekistan decreased by 40% - from 3.3 billion to 1.9 billion dollars.

According to Ahmedkhadzhayev, one of the tasks of the committee is to fully unlock the country's investment potential. Efforts to this end were acknowledged by the World Bank in the updated Doing Business-2018 ranking, in which Uzbekistan was among the top 10 improvers.

"Since 2012, Uzbekistan improved its ranking by 92 positions - from 166 to 74. Our next goal is quite ambitious - we want to enter the top 20 countries by 2025, "the Committee for Investments chief said.

The committee noted that on the way to this "super-goal", Uzbekistan's investment policy will have develop the priority sectors of the economy, improve the efficiency foreign investments attracting mechanism, seek new ways of cooperation with investors and develop new projects.

Uzbekistan is reviewing the bases of the legislative framework for attracting foreign investments, Ahmedkhadzhayev stressed. A draft concept of the Investment Code has been developed, which was recently published for public discussion. "This is a consolidated legal document that does not have any references to external regulations or articles," he said.

Improving the access to corporate financial information and elevating the financial reporting standards of local companies to international level is another goal.

In the third decade of November, a meeting of the Council for Foreign Investments is expected to be held, where it is planned to discuss the mechanisms of public-private partnership in Uzbekistan, as well as the relevant bill.