In 2030, the Uzbekistan’s GDP is projected at $160 billion, announced Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Jamshid Kuchkarov at a round table dedicated to public-private partnership today.
“Why are we considering public-private partnerships as one of the factors for expediting economic reforms and growth in Uzbekistan? Because the Uzbek economy needs investment, first of all, private investment… Achieving a $100 billion GDP [in 2026] and other goals requires investment, private investment,” he said.
Since the establishment of the Development of Public-Private Partnerships Agency under the Ministry of Finance at the end of 2018, Uzbekistan has concluded $10 billion in PPP deals. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, in 2022-2026 it is planned to increase this figure to $14 billion.
Jamshid Kuchkarov said that Uzbekistan is able to compete with other countries to attract investment.
“We have a short but very good track record over the past five years. But we have many reforms that have been delayed and not implemented for the last 20 years or more. And, you know, many of our partners did not expect such a high pace of reforms,” he said.
According to him, the idea of PPP was proposed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who instructed to study Turkey's experience in this area, as the country was looking for additional sources and channels for private investment.
“We started very primitive, I would say, but we were full of energy and full of dreams to move this whole PPP project forward. And now few countries can say that they have had so many PPP projects. For example, in the energy sector, in the public services sector, now we are going to [implement projects] in other sectors ... including education and healthcare,” he said.
Jamshid Kuchkarov also announced the country's development forecast by 2030.
“According to our forecasts, by 2030 the population of Uzbekistan will reach 40 million people, and the GDP will be $160 billion. And that means a GDP per capita of $4,000. Our partners from international financial institutions say that this is very ambitious. Yes, we understand this. But we think that under the leadership of the President we will be able to achieve this goal,” he stressed.
In 2021, Uzbekistan's GDP topped 734.6 trillion soums. When calculated in US dollars at the average exchange rate, nominal GDP reached $69.23 billion. GDP per capita rose to 1,983 dollars.
A number of tenders are planned for 2022-2023 to attract private companies to implement large projects in partnership with the state. The list of these projects was approved by the decree of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on April 8.
