President Shavkat Mirziyoyev today chaired a transport sector meeting, the presidential press service said. Due to lockdown restrictions, domestic transport enterprises suffered 340 billion soums, US$ 33 mln worth of losses. Until the epidemiological situation stabilizes, this figure will increase, Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted.
In order to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports, as the companies most affected by the lockdown, were granted deferrals for US$ 122 million worth of loans and tax reliefs worth over 60 billion soums. US$ 50 million worth of interest-free loans were provided from the Anti-Crisis Fund to use as working capital.
The President set the task for the Ministry of Transport to develop a business model for overcoming the consequences of the pandemic for Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports.
He gave instructions to enter the air cargo market on the Europe-China route and optimize current and investment costs.
The issues of attracting new air carriers to the civil aviation market in order to increase competition and hand over Uzbekistan Airways for management to a renowned foreign company were considered.
He announced plans to announce call for bids for the modernization of airports, as well as to transition the activities of the airports of Andijan, Bukhara, Urgench and Karshi into a public-private partnership terms.
The head of state gave instructions to optimize non-core enterprises within Uzbekistan Railways, the presence of which complicates the development of core business. In addition, he instructed to improve the mechanisms of tariff formation, to renew the rolling stock and locomotive fleet.
The President touched upon the issue of internal roads, noting their poor condition and pointed to the need of reconstruction of 80 thousand km of internal roads, as well as the introduction of the principle of "the User Pays", which is widely used throughout the world, is emphasized.
It was announced plans to announce a tender for the Tashkent-Andijan toll road project, including the construction of an alternative tunnel at the Kamchik pass.
