The Initiative Budget (Open Budget) Season Two will kick off on July 15, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced. This marks the 11th season since the public participatory budgeting initiative was first launched.
The project submission window will remain open from July 15 through August 3. Following this, the submitted proposals will undergo a screening and selection process from August 4 to August 18, leading into a project promotion phase scheduled for August 19–21.
Public voting will take place between August 22 and 31. The winning initiatives will be officially announced on September 1, coinciding with the celebration of Uzbekistan's 35th Independence Day. Additionally, a secondary selection of runner-up winning projects will be announced from September 1 to September 10.
The first season of the 2026 Initiative Budget concluded on March 21, drawing over 10.2 million votes from citizens. More than 3 trillion soums will be funneled into executing the 1,996 winning projects, which focus on renovating schools, repairing roads, and upgrading local infrastructure. On April 1, an additional 47 projects were granted winning status, receiving 18.2 billion soums in funding from the supplementary reserves of local budgets through decisions by regional and municipal councils of people's deputies.
Notably, a new citizen-state co-financing mechanism was introduced on February 1. Under this partnership framework, if residents voluntarily agree to cover half of a project's expenses, the initiative is automatically fast-tracked as a winner, with the state budget providing the remaining 50% match. Up to 1,000 projects will receive funding through this co-financing stream.
A total of 6 trillion soums has been allocated to the Initiative Budget program for the year 2026. Of this sum, 496 billion soums will be directed toward legislative initiatives, while another 506 billion soums are earmarked specifically for these community co-financed projects.
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