New procedure for supporting domestic producers to be established from 2023

With the launch of the electronic cooperation portal - cooperation.uz,   the open digital ecosystem of e-commerce will become the main platform in the field of public procurement, as well as the procedure for the application by local manufacturers of reduced tax rates for income tax and turnover tax when selling their products through this portal. 

From January 1, 2023, a procedure will be established in accordance with which:

ꞏ government customers place their applications on the portal in order to explore the possibilities of procurement from local suppliers;
ꞏ in the absence of the possibility of supplying products of local manufacturers, these applications from the portal will be sent to the electronic public procurement systems of other operators accredited by the Ministry of Finance, in the manner established by the Ministry of Finance;
ꞏ public buyers are prohibited from submitting applications to the electronic public procurement systems of other operators bypassing the portal;
ꞏ the registration of single suppliers by the Ministry of Finance and the conclusion of direct contracts by them is carried out online on a special digital platform of the portal.

This platform ensures the legitimacy of concluding direct contracts and the uniqueness of goods (works, services) supplied by single suppliers, checking the absence of competitive offers from other market participants.

Payment for public procurement contracts is carried out by government customers and suppliers through their single personal accounts opened in a single settlement and clearing repository center of an open digital e-commerce ecosystem, acting as an escrow agent (an independent third party to which valuables are transferred in order to ensure the fulfillment of obligations under deal) of the public procurement system.

The Digital Transformation Center under the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade, together with the Ministry of Finance, will develop a draft government decree on the formation of a unified register of suppliers for public procurement and approval of the procedure for concluding direct contracts by November 1, 2022.