Starting from 2018, salaries' increase rate in Uzbekistan will not be lower than that of inflation level, the First deputy economy minister Mubin Mirzaev said at the International Press Club meeting Thursday.
According to him, the government will every six months compensate the loss due to inflation. As reported earlier the average monthly salary in Uzbekistan in January-September 2017 was estimated at 1,000,346 soums (123.6 US dollars at the CB’s current exchange rate), rising by 14.2%, compared to the same period last year.
He also mentioned about the measures the government is planning to take to raise the salaries. "People deserve to live well, but for this we must have plenty of manufacturing. That is, we need to manufacture and provide more goods and services, create jobs. This is correlated," Mubin Mirzaev said.
Our main goal is to achieve a major increase of salaries by 2020, he stressed. "For this, the volumes of manufacturing must grow. We also need to tackle three main problems: fuel shortage, ensure the uninterrupted supply of electricity and gas. This will reduce the cost of production, increase the competitiveness and increase production volumes," he said.
Next year, it is planned to increase gas production and electricity generation by 17%. At the same time, there will be changes in the provision of gas and electricity. "We export gas, but the government also aims to provide gas to growing number of local producers and consumers. For the first time we are importing electricity from Kyrgyzstan," he added.
As Mubin Mirzaev noted, Uzbekistan is planning to step up its solar power capacities in 2018-2019, thorugh cooperation with Canadian and Turkish companies.
