Uzbekistan and the World Bank will prepare and adopt a new five-year partnership program. An agreement on this was reached at a meeting of the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev with a the Vice President Anna Bjerde, the presidential press service said. The previous partnership strategy between Uzbekistan and the WB was in effect from 2016 to 2020.
The World Bank delegation also supported the new cooperation agenda proposed by the President. It includes such areas as:
- support for reforms aimed at reducing poverty in the country, primarily through the development of entrepreneurship in rural areas, promotion of business initiatives of women and youth;
- increasing the efficiency of transformations in the field of higher education and health care;
- implementation of the program for the accelerated industrialization of the country's regions and the continuation of the project for the development of medium-sized cities;
- transition to an innovative development model, the introduction of a "green economy";
- continuation of reforms in the field of land relations;
- fighting corruption and increasing the capacity of state development institutions;
- joint promotion of large regional infrastructure projects.
The total portfolio of World Bank projects in Uzbekistan has reached US$ 7 billion. The current program includes 23 ongoing projects worth US$ 4.1 billion, covering areas such as education, health, energy, water supply, agriculture, transport and other areas.
