Uzbekistan will allocate 200 billion soums to fight unemployment in the wake of coronavirus. This was announced at a meeting on mitigating the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the standard of living of the population and the economy.

Photo: Presidential press service

Special attention is paid to the social protection of the people. It is tasked to ensure the rights of employees of quarantined institutions, quarantined citizens and caregivers, increase the number of recipients of social benefits by at least 10%, or to 60,000.

Dismissal of parents, who take care of their children, who are kept in quarantine, is strictly prohibited. They are paid 100% temporary social allowance.

During the suspension period of the activities of kindergartens and secondary schools, parents and persons, who replace them, shall be provided with annual leave, regardless of the annual leave plan.

When economic activity declines, employment issues require special attention. Therefore, an additional 200 billion soums will be allocated from the Anti-Crisis Fund to the Public Works Fund.  These funds will be used to provide people with jobs and to build additional infrastructure in the communities. In addition, the State Fund for Support of Entrepreneurship will be provided with an additional 500 billion soums to support business entities that will create jobs.

In order to implement these measures qualitatively, it was determined that the Republican Anti-Crisis Commission will be established under the leadership of the Prime Minister. Starting from March 22 within 2 months, this Commission will be responsible for combating coronavirus, addressing the issues of industry, services, trade, transport, logistics and other businesses in each district and city.