World Bank to allocate Uzbekistan $500 million to support macroeconomic reforms

Uzbekistan and the World Bank are planning this year to agree on the signing of a number of new loan agreements, the press service of the Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the republic reported.

On February 26, a meeting of the Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov with the WB Vice President Cyril Muller was held, during which cooperation of the international financial organization with Uzbekistan were discussed.

“In 2019, approval and signing of loan agreements on a number of significant projects including development of entrepreneurship in the Fergana Valley, launching of Digital Uzbekistan (Digital CASA) program, reconstruction of water supply and sewage systems in a number of regions of Uzbekistan is expected,” the press service said.

The Digital CASA program, implemented by the World Bank Group, aims to expand access to high-speed Internet for the countries of Central Asia and some landlocked South Asian regions.

Summing up the activities of the financial group for 2018, Muller noted the significant intensification of the use of allocated funds and expressed the hope that this trend will continue.

Moreover, it is stated that the plans of a financial corporation are growing in scale: it is planned to drastically expand the range of areas to include 4 new sectors: energy (in particular, the alternative energy sector), financial sector, transport-logistics and agriculture.

The current portfolio of cooperation between Uzbekistan and the World Bank includes 39 implemented and ongoing projects with attraction of concessional financing in the amount of $4.4 billion. In the framework of the Partnership Strategy for the period up to 2020, more than 20 promising new initiatives are being considered.

The last time the World Bank approved a loan to Uzbekistan in the amount of $500 million in June 2018. Funds should be used to support macroeconomic reforms. Earlier, the bank’s Tashkent office reported that a second loan in the amount of $500 million for the same purpose would be allotted after its approval by the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank in May 2019.