On February 14, the Deputy PM/Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade S. Umurzakov held talks with the President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Muhammad Suleiman al-Jassir via a conference call.
The parties considered organizing the activities of the Fund for the expansion of economic opportunities and underscored that in January of this year, the IDB held a road show to attract private investors to participate in the Fund. The parties expressed their commitment to active work to expedite the resolution of organizational and financial issues in order to launch the Fund's activities in Q2 of this year.
An agreement was reached on the joint development of a new Partnership Cooperation Program with the IDB for 2023-2025. The parties exchanged views on priority areas of cooperation, among which were the increase in employment and skills of the population, the empowerment of women in the regions and rural areas, the promotion of youth entrepreneurship and support for start-ups, the modernization of water supply, sewerage, utilities and transport infrastructure.
The $500 million SmartEd program includes a $100 million grant funding package from the Global Education Partnership funding platform and a concessional funding package to support educational projects in the IBR member-countries.
Muhammad Suleiman al-Jassir also expressed readiness to consider the possibility of expanding support for SMEs in Uzbekistan through the use of trade finance instruments and other financial instruments of cooperation with the country's commercial banks.
The Deputy PM welcomed the new joint initiative of the IDB and the Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (APICORP) - Infra Initiative, focused on project financing in alternative energy, infrastructure construction, water management and waste disposal, including by attracting private companies and investors for this in the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The parties discussed prospects for allocation of additional resources by the IDB for the program for reconstruction of 400 schools in Uzbek provinces in order to improve the quality of education in densely populated, rural and remote areas.
