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In the period 2020-2022, the government of Uzbekistan plans to attract over 850 trillion Soms ($90 billion dollars) of investment, including $35bn of foreign investment. The projected figures were included in an investment programme approved by a decree of the country’s president Shavkat Mirziyoyev on 9 January.
According to the programme’s forecasts, over the course of the current year alone, more than 233 trillion Soms ($24.5bn) of funds will be invested in the country. Of this, 43.4 trillion ($4.5bn) will be centralised investments, that is, funds from the state budget, from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan, as well as from foreign investments and loans contracted under government guarantee. Private investment, including funds from Uzbek citizens and businesses, credit from commercial banks, and foreign loans and investments secured without a state guarantee will come to around 190 trillion Soms ($20bn).
For comparison, in 2019 the country attracted 184 trillion Soms ($19.3bn) of capital investment, which was 30% higher than the equivalent figure for the previous year. Also in 2019, investment as a proportion of the country’s GDP rose by 34%, the document states.
An appendix to the presidential decree includes specific plans over the course of 2020 to bring 206 large industrial facilities into operation, as well as to create over 30,000 new jobs. $2.8bn will be directed towards realising these goals, the major part of which will go towards the construction of new enterprises.
Among the large-scale projects cited in the decree, it is worth highlighting the opening of a factory producing synthetic liquid fuel using methane at the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (investments over the current year will amount to $429m) and the start of ammonia and carbamide production at the Navoiyazot plant (investments amounting to $318m). In addition to this, the company Uzbek Airways plans to add a Boeing 787-8 aircraft to its fleet in March, at a cost of over $141m. $50m is also earmarked for the reconstruction of the international airport at Samarkand and the organisation of electronic gas meter production at the Technopark in Tashkent.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Industry of Uzbekistan, the country’s GDP grew by 5.5% last year. To a large extent this was achieved by attracting investment into the Uzbek economy, the volume of which was established at $21bn last year, with a growth rate of 28.6%
