Thursday, 09, May, 2024

Finances

President of Uzbekistan on Tuesday signed a decree appointing Abdukhafiz Karimov as Deputy Finance Minister. Abdukhafiz Karimov will oversee the issues of financing the social sphere, science, government bodies and the Off-Budget Pension Fund.

Starting from June 28, 2017, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU) will raise the interest rate by 5 percentage points to 14% per annum, In a statement, the CBU announced.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree on June 16 increasing the government’s stake in Uzbek banks by 500 million US dollars to be funded by the Reconstruction and Development Fund of Uzbekistan (FRDU). The decree is aimed at "maintaining the level of capitalization of banks, help stabilize the e financial stability of the banking system and expanding their participation in financing of projects and lending to entrepreneurship".

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a results-based loan of $500 million to support the construction of up to 29,000 new affordable housing units in nine regions across Uzbekistan as part of the State Affordable Rural Housing Program.

The Government of the Republic of Korea has approved US $ 3.5 million in a grant to support the Boosting Uzbekistan’s Agriculture Through Building of Cold Storage Facilities Project aimed at introducing modern technologies for storage of fruit and vegetable products and further enhancing of cooperation between Uzbekistan and Republic of Korea the in the field of agriculture.

Uzbekistan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are preparing $ 1.5 billion worth of joint projects, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said.

The May 10 Fitch Ratings report says that most of the Uzbek banks it rates are resilient to depreciation of the Uzbek soum, which is possible over the medium term as the authorities plan to liberalise the foreign-exchange market and relax regulation of conversion operations.

As previously reported, in early April 2017, as part of a study tour to the Republic of the Czech Republic organized by the joint project of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan and UNDP "Local Governance Support Program / Phase 2", representatives of ministries and agencies, governor’s offices of Jizzakh, Tashkent and Namangan provinces studied the experience of Czech Republic in the field of organizing the activities of local authorities.

The regulator announced that the Board of the Central Bank made a decision to keep the Bank’s rate at 9%. The Central Bank added that the decision was aimed at implementing the effective monetary policy, keeping the inflation at its target level and stimulating the economic growth.

On 26-28 April, 2017, a mission of the EU officials paid an official visit to Uzbekistan. They held talks with central government officials in Tashkent and local authorities in Samarkand, met with representatives of the diplomatic corps, EU companies, NGOs active in Uzbekistan, and visited the EU-funded projects.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved an $80 million loan for the electrification of 145 kilometers (km) of railway in Uzbekistan, linking the cities of Pap, Namangan, and Andijan. The electrified track is part of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Corridor 2, a critical transport link in the region.

On April 11, 2017, the World Bank and the Government of Uzbekistan signed a US$50 million Credit Agreement for the Modernizing Higher Education Project that will support the country in strengthening the management of its higher education system and improving its quality and relevance to the labor market.

On April 12-13, 2017, Tashkent’s Kurgazma Savdo Markazi exhibition center will host the annual exhibition of banking services, equipment and technologies - BankExpo-2017.

The Uzbek Senate hosted the meeting between the first Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Sodiq Safoev with the World Bank’s Acting Country Manager for Uzbekistan, Jan-Peter Olters.

On March 31, 2017, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree on creation of the State Committee for Investments, a body which will be responsible for coordinating the formation and implementation of a common government investment policy and attracting foreign investment.

On March 16, 2017, the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev received the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Suma Chakrabarti.

On March 16, 2017, the Uzbek Foreign Minister, Abdulaziz Kamilov met with the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Suma Chakrabarti, who arrived in Uzbekistan as the head of the EBRD delegation, a statement of the Foreign Ministry said.

The President Shavkat Mirziyoyev with his March 13 Decree "On additional measures to expand the scale of construction of affordable housing in Tashkent city for 2017-2021" has established a joint-stock housing construction and savings Poytakht Bank, a statement of the Central Bank said.

The Competition Committee together with the Research Center, the Central Securities Depository and Tashkent Stock Exchange developed Uzbekistan’s Secondary Securities Market Development Concept for 2017-2018.

Today an EBRD delegation, headed by the President Suma Chakrabarti will arrive in Uzbekistan, a statement in the Bank's website said.