This Monday, February 27, 2023 the European-Uzbek Association for Economic Cooperation (EUROUZ), in partnership with the government and international financial institutions, together with key European Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations covering Uzbekistan, held an online webinar “Uzbekistan 2023: Economic & Investment Update”, which aroused a great interest among the European professional community with over 280 companies registering to be part of the event.
The speakers including Sarvar Khamidov, Deputy Minister of Investments, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Charlotte Adriaen, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Uzbekistan; Nele Eichhorn, Head of Unit, DG Trade of the European Commission; Eric Livny, Lead Regional Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); Begzod Jalilov, Senior Economist, Resident Mission of Uzbekistan to the Asian Development Bank (ADB); Murat Mirzaev, Director of the Investment Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in a first-hand, open discussion aimed to provide comprehensive answers to where Uzbekistan stands at the beginning of 2023, how the economy had performed in 2022, and what reforms have been implemented to support Uzbekistan-EU business relations.
In his welcoming speech, Deputy Minister of Investments, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sarvar Khamidov noted how the Uzbekistan's latest administrative reforms, such as merging the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy are focused on optimizing the administrative efficiency and transparency on the local tax environment. He also mentioned that the new EU-Uzbekistan agreements have recently laid the groundwork for enhanced cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EU.
Mrs.Nele Eithnorn, Head of Unit at European Commission's DG TRADE and H.E. Charlotte Adriaen, Head of EU Delegation in Uzbekistan talked about the EU's role in supporting Uzbekistan's WTO accession, the expected effects of the forthcoming Enhanced Cooperation & Partnership Agreement (EPCA) with the EU, Uzbekistan achieving GSP+ status and prospective EU-CA Connectivity events. Ambassador Charlotte Adriaen concluded her speech by saying “the first step is to rectify the reforms, but it really takes patience to implement them, and the EU delegation to Uzbekistan acknowledges the great efforts made by the Uzbek government and is ready to offer its support”.
The discussion was followed by the reports from EBRD and ADB regional economists, who addressed major challenges and opportunities for Uzbekistan in 2023. During his presentation, the EBRD Lead Regional Economist, Eric Livny identified the key figures and trends of 2022 describing how politics, increased exports, inflation and remittances influenced the perspectives of the country's economy. “Uzbekistan sits in the middle of the historical Silk Road transport corridor, and the country should fully embrace this opportunity”, noted Mr. Livny when talking about the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway construction project.
In addition to that, Senior Economics Officer of ADB Uzbekistan Resident Mission, Begzod Jalilov noted that the economic growth in 2023 is projected to slow down, high inflation with escalated costs of imports and cost of warranted reforms is expected, while the inflow of cross-border transfers will partially compensate merchandise trade deficit.
In the framework of Investment outlook section, the newly appointed Director of Investment promotion agency under the Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Murat Mirzaev, had addressed that key sectors, such as machinery, electronics, and agriculture significantly benefited from the reforms implemented for the past 5 years. This in turn has resulted in the increase of foreign trade turnover, reduction of taxes and import tariffs, as well as abolishment of a number of licenses and permits. Mr. Mirzaev highlighted that the Investment promotion agency is ready to support potential local and international investors, and proposed to work jointly with the EU commission on promoting Uzbekistan's investment attractiveness.
Oybek Shaykhov, Secretary-General of EUROUZ: “Uzbekistan 2023: Economic & Investment Update became a valuable platform for local and international companies to learn about and directly take advantage of the development opportunities of the current reforms implemented by the government. This has become the first of the series of EUROUZ webinars allowing for open and engaging discussions between the European companies and senior representatives of Uzbekistan's Government. EUROUZ also hopes that the establishment of the new EUROUZ Committees that is currently being undertaken will bring together representatives of European businesses and the Uzbek government for a closer and more constant dialogue on specific sectors and contribute to their development in Uzbekistan ”.
