The Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Jamshid Khojayev said there is a favorable environment for investments and guaranteed business protection by law that had spewed out to an increase in direct investments by 2.5 times ($8.6 billion) since 2017 ($3.3 billion), at the Uzbekistan-Hungary business forum in Samarkand.
Next, the minister talked about the policy of sustainable economic development. The average annual growth of Uzbekistan's economy is 5 percent, industrial sectors are 8 percent. In 2021, this indicator increased to 7 percent. Export volumes increased by 1.5 times.
The population of Uzbekistan has the opportunity to enter the markets of Central Asia with 72 million people and the Commonwealth of Independent States with 300 million people.
At the same time, the GSP+ extended system of preferences has made it possible to export more than 6,000 types of local products to European markets on preferential terms.
Thirdly, Uzbekistan is rich in talented, young, and high-potential personnel. More than 60 percent of the population are young people under the age of 30. They are highly educated citizens and young people who strive for knowledge, are eager to master various professions and speak foreign languages.
Fourthly, Uzbekistan has huge reserves of natural resources. It ranks 2nd in the world in terms of the gold resource base, 7th in copper, 8th in tungsten, 9th in silver, 12th in uranium, and natural gas production ranks 16th.
These create a huge ground for the export of products produced with the help of new technologies not only in mining, but also in areas such as electrical engineering, non-ferrous metallurgy, and mechanical engineering, to third countries.
Fifth, all necessary infrastructures are being created in order to ensure the continuity of production of business entities. 22 special economic zones specializing in the industry, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and tourism have been established. These zones are provided with all engineering communication infrastructures, such as highways, electricity, natural gas, drinking water and sewerage, and the Internet.
Sixth, in order to support producers, financial support and subsidies are provided to them. In order to encourage local manufacturers to export their products, a mechanism has been created to reimburse up to 70% of transport costs.
Also, an Investment Fund was established for joint financing of joint projects with investors.
Seventh, Uzbekistan is located at the intersection of major transport corridors and can serve as a bridge between the markets of the West and East, North and South countries, as well as an important logistics area.
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