Archives

---

---

At the invitation of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will pay a state visit to our country on August 25-26 this year. 

The main events of the program of the high guest’s stay will take place in the city of Samarkand.

The agenda of the summit includes issues of developing political, trade, economic and investment cooperation, establishing cooperation in the chemical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, textile, mining and other industries, expanding cultural and humanitarian exchanges.

An exchange of views on current aspects of international and regional politics will also be held.

Following the talks, a package of bilateral agreements is expected to be signed.

---

---

The events of the working visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Turkmenistan have concluded.

In the Caspian “Avaza” tourist zone, the Head of our state held talks with the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Khalk Maslakhaty Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

A trilateral meeting was held between President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, National Leader of the Turkmen People, Chairman of the Kalk Maslakhaty Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Following the meeting, a joint statement was adopted and a number of documents were signed.

At a meeting with representatives of the media, the leaders shared their assessments of the results of the negotiations.

As part of the program of his visit, the Head of our state, together with the leaders of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, watched the performances of the national equestrian group “Galkynysh”.

At the end of the visit, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan was seen off at the airport in Turkmenbashi by the deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Nokerguly Atagulyev and other officials.

The Head of our state returned to Tashkent.

---

---

As part of the cultural program of the working visit, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, National Leader of the Turkmen People, Chairman of the Khalk Maslakhaty Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev jointly visited a special site near the “Avaza” Congress Center . 

The distinguished guests were demonstrated the performances by Akhal-Teke horses from the national equestrian group “Galkynysh”.

The world-famous equestrian group “Galkynysh” successfully performed at the 47th International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo this year, where it won a gold award, as well as at the International Ethnosport Festival in Istanbul.

As a sign of deep respect for the people of Uzbekistan, the National Leader of the Turkmen people presented the Head of our state with a gift – a camel and a camel calf, symbolizing prosperity and well-being.

---

---

In accordance with the decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated August 18 this year, a group of entrepreneurs who have made a significant contribution to the development of the economy and strengthening the export potential of the country, creating new jobs and improving the welfare of the population, have been awarded honorary titles, orders and medals.

On August 20, a solemn ceremony was held in New Tashkent to present these awards.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev congratulated those gathered on Entrepreneurs’ Day and the approaching Independence Day.

– Today at this event I am glad to see leading entrepreneurs – the most advanced representatives of our society. When we started large-scale reforms in this sphere, both economists and businessmen themselves had certain concerns. But we did not stop, we continued to create conditions with faith in success and energy. We made responsible persons hear entrepreneurs. This has borne fruit – trust between the state and business has been strengthened, the whole society has become an ally of the entrepreneur, – said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

It was emphasized that entrepreneurs of the country with their new ideas and initiatives drive forward all sectors, and large-scale programs are implemented together with them.

– We have created conditions for entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs have become a reliable pillar of the state. Over the past 4-5 years, 7.5 million people have been employed. This year alone, more than 3 million new jobs have been created. Are these results possible without the improvement of the investment climate and business environment, – emphasized the President. 

Certainly, it would be impossible to achieve this without entrepreneurs themselves. Today, they are the driving force of the economy in various spheres, especially in rural areas, providing the population with a stable income. The experience of professional training of hundreds of thousands of young men and women, their entrepreneurship education is also the result of joint work with business.

– The formation of a new generation of entrepreneurs and businessmen in our country is our great wealth and achievement, – said the President. – After all, every entrepreneur leads dozens of people, trains them, creates jobs and income, brings a new breath into the life of society. You can rightfully be called heroes of the New Uzbekistan.

According to the tradition established on the initiative of the Head of State, every year the best entrepreneurs are honored with high awards of the Motherland. This year, special attention in selecting nominees has been paid to those who have set an example for the business community, achieved concrete results and made a significant contribution to the development of regions and the country as a whole through production and export.

At the ceremony, the Head of State solemnly presented state awards to their recipients.

The laureates expressed their gratitude to the President for his constant support and appreciation of their labor.

The event was attended by representatives of state and public organizations, scientists and intellectuals.

---

---

On August 20, an open dialogue of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev with entrepreneurs was held in New Tashkent. 

The Head of our state congratulated the businessmen with the professional holiday and the 34th anniversary of independence. He emphasized their major contribution to transformations in each sector, each region and each mahalla.

Over the past eight years, many sectors of the economy have been re-shaped. During this period, $230 billion dollars of investments have been attracted, of which more than $120 billion are foreign. In the first half of this year, our country’s economy grew by 7.2 percent.

Owing to the creation of favorable conditions for doing business, the number of entrepreneurs and the scale of their activities have increased. For example, 1,600 micro-enterprises increased their turnover to more than 10 billion soums during the year and immediately moved to the category of medium-sized enterprises, 143 – exceeded the turnover of 100 billion soums and became large companies. Another 122 small enterprises became large companies.

As a result of measures to bring business out of the shadow in 139 thousand companies the number of jobs increased by 811 thousand, in 273 thousand companies the labor remuneration fund increased by 22 percent. If last year the average salary in the private sector amounted to 4 million soums, today it is close to 5 million soums.

It was noted that since the first open dialogue, almost a thousand initiatives of entrepreneurs have been enshrined in the legislation. The current meeting has become the fifth in count. In the course of preparation for it, meetings were held with almost 7 thousand representatives of 26 industries, more than 13 thousand appeals and proposals were received through the “call-center”.

In recent weeks, the key sectors of the economy – fruit and vegetables, textiles and individual entrepreneurship – have been discussed and support measures have been identified.

At today’s dialogue, the Head of State put forward new initiatives in other areas of entrepreneurship as well.

First of all, the service sector will be actively developed as the most effective area for creating short-term and quick-paying jobs. A new program for the development of tourism is being launched. In the next three years, 5 thousand hectares of land will be auctioned for the organization of hotels and tourist facilities. At the same time, entrepreneurs wishing to build a hotel will not be charged for the land – the state will enter the project as a co-founder for the amount of the cost of the land plot.

Entrepreneurs will be able to buy out this share within ten years at any time. If payment is made at once, a 20 percent discount will be provided. Seven-year loans with a two-year grace period will be available for hotel construction.

Many entrepreneurs are already acquiring public and private properties and converting them into hotels. Now the subsidies envisaged for the construction of new hotels will be provided to them as well. In addition, hotels located outside Tashkent, regional centers and major tourist zones are exempted from paying tourist tax.

If earlier family guest houses could receive no more than 10 tourists per day, now this limit is doubled.

The President suggested holding a contest among domestic hotels and family guesthouses. The prize fund of the contest will amount to $1 million dollars, and the best facilities that have received the largest number of positive reviews on reputable international platforms will be rewarded annually.

Due to infrastructure development, the number of major tourist zones will be increased. Thus, large year-round resort zones will be created in Chartak, Ferghana, Baysun and Nurabad districts.

This year, more than 1 trillion soums have been allocated for accelerated development of 16 districts. In the future, similar projects will be implemented in 30 more districts at the expense of $500 million.

This will create great opportunities for entrepreneurs in industry, services and construction, as well as tens of thousands of jobs.

Businesses also need additional space. In this regard, from next year state assets will be leased for five years.

It is noted that the Law “On Lease”, adopted in 1991, was mainly aimed at protecting the interests of state bodies. In this regard, a new version of the law will be developed, which will equally protect the rights of the lessor and the lessee.

New opportunities in education and medicine were also identified at the meeting.

In particular, in 80 districts with low enrollment in pre-school education, entrepreneurs will be granted privileges.

They will be allowed to build kindergartens on vacant land of pre-school institutions and schools on the terms of public-private partnership. At the same time, no land rent will be charged for 30 years. The state will subsidize half of the costs for each child envisaged in public kindergartens. Also, favorable loans will be granted to enterprising entrepreneurs, and the social tax rate for them will be only 1 percent.

For entrepreneurs creating medical clusters, loans will be provided for 7 years with a three-year grace period at an annual interest rate of 17 percent.

The President emphasized that the most important tool to support business is financial services. In this regard, an investment platform will be created for simplified attraction of funds for projects. With its help, entrepreneurs will be able to attract up to $1 billion a year.

Today there are more than 600 startups operating in Uzbekistan. In the first seven months of this year alone, they attracted a record volume of $264 million in foreign investment.

This work will continue: it is planned to commercialize a thousand startup ideas of young people, 200 of which will be brought to the international market. On the basis of advanced technologies, 100 local startups will turn into attractive world-class businesses. For this purpose, $100 million will be allocated.

The “Young Entrepreneurs” championship will start from this year. The 100 best ideas will be selected and up to 1 billion soums will be invested in each startup.

To expand digital financial services, a five-year strategy will be adopted to introduce a new ecosystem – “open banking”.

Next year, banks will raise $1 billion to provide targeted support to SMEs on favorable terms. An alternative scoring model will be introduced, which will ease the conditions for obtaining loans.

The meeting also addressed the issues of tax administration.

Currently, enterprises with annual turnover over 10 billion soums have to pay advance payments of income tax, which creates difficulties with working capital. Now this procedure will be applied only for turnover above 20 billion soums. As a result, 14 thousand entrepreneurs will have additional 1 trillion soums of working capital.

Enterprises switching from turnover tax to VAT are exempted from paying income tax for one year. Even in case of errors in reporting, fines will not be applied. In addition, a part of accountants’ salaries up to 5 million soums for six months will be deducted from taxes paid by such enterprises.

Two years ago, an accounting system was introduced for “simplified” taxpayers by tax officials. From next year, entrepreneurs will be exempt from the obligation to prepare reports on land, property, social and income tax – they will be compiled free of charge by the tax authorities. Businesses will be able to make corrections to reporting within 5 days.

As is known, business develops where the rule of law is in force. In recent years, modern investment instruments have been introduced into the economy – venture capital, bonds, crowdfunding, startups. These relations are currently regulated by dozens of documents.

The President proposed to unite all these regulations into a single document of direct action – to adopt the Investment Code. It will unite all the rules, guarantees and procedures in the investment sphere and will help stimulate investment.

The Head of State also announced another important news: from 2026 the principle of “Start a business in 15 minutes” will be introduced. Upon registration, an entrepreneur will be immediately provided with an electronic digital signature, a bank account and a notification to the state authorities.

The list of goods subject to mandatory certification has been reduced to 459 items and will be reduced by another 288.

For 32 categories of goods – such as seedlings, mineral fertilizers, footwear, livestock feed under sanitary, veterinary and quarantine control – certificates of conformity will be abolished. In general, the national infrastructure related to ensuring the safety and quality of products and their evaluation will be fundamentally reformed and brought in line with international standards. First of all, the practice of declaration of conformity will be widely introduced instead of certification.

The system of technical regulation will be completely transformed: the object of control will be not the entrepreneur, but the product itself.

It has been noted that all of the above-mentioned opportunities are already taking effect today.

The President emphasized that the tasks set are ambitious, but achievable due to the current entrepreneurial spirit in our country.

The meeting continued in the format of an open dialogue. Entrepreneurs participating from central and regional studios voiced their suggestions and comments. Problematic issues were discussed, on which the responsible persons were given appropriate instructions.

---

---

Distinguished Co-Chairs of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to warmly welcome you to the ancient and beautiful land of Uzbekistan.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center for the initiative to gather here in Tashkent such a distinguished assembly of participants – prominent politicians and statesmen, leaders of international organizations, who are making a significant contribution to the development of their countries, the strengthening of international cooperation, and the promotion of mutual trust.

It should be particularly underlined that the important role of the Center in preserving and widely popularizing the unique intellectual and creative legacy of the great Azerbaijani thinker Nizami Ganjavi – the “Sultan of Poets,” as he was described by the eminent Uzbek poet Alisher Navoi.

I would like to emphasize that Nizami Ganjavi’s profound and timeless philosophy – his ideas of harmony between man and the surrounding world and of justice – assume even greater importance in today’s difficult conditions.

The active engagement of the Nizami Ganjavi Center in addressing pressing issues of the international agenda also deserves special recognition.

The annual Global Baku Forum, held under its auspices, has become one of the world’s most respected dialogue platforms, where new ideas are advanced to resolve the most urgent challenges of international and regional development.

I consider it particularly important that the central theme of today’s forum is devoted to the interconnectedness of Central Asia and the South Caucasus and the prospects for partnership between these two major regions and Europe.

We regard this as a unique opportunity to introduce Central Asia more broadly to the world – a region where consolidation and cooperation are gaining momentum – to exchange views on strengthening interregional connectivity and on fully realizing the potential of Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.

In recent years, Uzbek-Azerbaijani relations have been developing dynamically in a spirit of mutual trust and support. A Treaty on Allied Relations has been signed, and the Supreme Interstate Council is actively functioning.

I would like to particularly highlight that Azerbaijan serves as a strategic bridge linking Central Asia and Europe.

Today our relations with Europe, which is represented at this forum by a large number of participants, are entering an entirely new stage of development.

Recently, for the first time, we hosted in our country the “Central Asia–European Union” Summit.

A historic decision was adopted to establish a strategic partnership between our region and the countries of the European Union. In the coming months, we intend to sign an Agreement on Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation with the European Union.

Together with the European Union and other partners, we will continue to work purposefully on developing efficient transport, logistics, and energy corridors. I am convinced that these efforts will revive the role of our region as a hub between West and East.

We deeply value the readiness of the President of Azerbaijan, His Excellency Ilham Heydarovich Aliyev, to contribute to the development of a new regional processes and his tireless efforts to strengthen the interaction between the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Availing this opportunity, we once again sincerely congratulate the friendly people of Azerbaijan on their great historic achievement – the recent signing in Washington, with the mediation of the United States, of the Trilateral Joint Declaration with Armenia.

Distinguished participants,

Today Uzbekistan is resolutely advancing its dynamic reforms, and along this path we have already achieved tremendous results. The principle that “Uzbekistan is a country open to the world and discovering the world for itself” has taken firm root in our national life.

We are consistently strengthening long-term relations with foreign partners and international organizations, broadening the scope of cooperation, and remaining open to the most advanced ideas. We will steadfastly pursue the policy of building a New Uzbekistan – a law-governed, secular, democratic, and socially oriented state.

In these extraordinarily difficult times, Uzbekistan and the Central Asian region offer the international community an invaluable resource – stability, trust, and development.

Today, under these new conditions, broad horizons for cooperation are opening before us, creating new opportunities for joint work in areas of mutual interest and benefit. We therefore look forward to your support and continued collaboration.

I sincerely wish all participants of today’s meeting fruitful discussions and every success in the work of the forum.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan