A delegation from the EBRD’s Board of Directors will visit Uzbekistan from 19 to 23 March 2018. The visit, which is part of preparations for the Bank’s medium-term strategy for the country, will help the Directors to assess reforms taking place in Central Asia’s most populated country.
The Directors will meet with the Uzbek authorities as well as representatives of other international financial institutions and the local business community to discuss further reforms and priorities for the Uzbek economy.
Representatives from the Board of Directors will include:
- Heinz Kaufmann, Director for Switzerland, Ukraine, Liechtenstein, Turkmenistan, Serbia, Montenegro, Moldova, Uzbekistan
- Yosuke Kawakami, Director for Japan
- Antonio Oporto, Director for Spain, Mexico
- Jörgen Frotzler, Director for Sweden, Iceland, Estonia
- Wioletta Barwicka-Lofthouse, Director for Poland, Bulgaria, Albania
- Taşkın Temiz, Director for Turkey, Romania, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic
- Johannes Koskinen, Director for Finland, Norway, Latvia, Lebanon
- Raphaël Bello, Director for France
- Phillip Barresi, Director for Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Egypt
- Harold Freeman, Director for the United Kingdom.
During the visit, the Board Directors, together with Natasha Khanjenkova, EBRD Managing Director for Central Asia and Russia, and Alkis Vryenios Drakinos, EBRD Head of Uzbekistan, will meet, among other officials, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan and EBRD Governor Sukhrob Kholmuradov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Uzbekistan Jamshid Kuchkarov, and First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan Temur Ishmetov, as well as Senators Sodyq Safoyev and Alisher Kurmanov.
The EBRD delegation will visit the country’s two major cities, Tashkent and Samarkand, and also hold meetings with the diplomatic and international business community, local think-tanks and civil society organisations as well as with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan and the Business Women’s Association of Uzbekistan.
The EBRD is the largest institutional investor in Central Asia, with close to €11.6 billion (US$ 12.3 billion equivalent) committed to projects in a variety of sectors, from infrastructure to agriculture, with a focus on private sector development.
Between 1992 and 2010, the EBRD invested €894 million in Uzbekistan in 54 projects. By the end of 2017, the Bank had signed its first six new operations in the country since 2010, for a total of over €153 million.
