Uzbekistan plans to attract $32 billion worth of economic investments

On October 20, Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on the main directions and tasks in forming the state budget for 2024, the presidential press service reported.

The meeting discussed possibilities for optimizing costs in all industries and areas. Tasks were outlined to reduce production costs in industry by cutting costs in large industries.

According to calculations, in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, the costs of 349 large enterprises can be reduced by more than 2 trillion soums. The Cabinet of Ministers has been instructed to prepare a program to reduce costs by 15-20% for 2024.

The need to introduce amendments to legislation aimed at tightening budget discipline was also noted. Officials were urged to abandon the practice of direct public procurement contracts in favor of competitions and tenders.

In addition, the participants considered issues of expanding budget revenues. The President emphasized the importance of expanding the tax base and combating the “shadow” economy by encouraging business to legalize.

Separately, measures were discussed to bring enterprises to full capacity to increase their income. In the coming year, it is planned to attract $32 billion of investments into the economy of Uzbekistan in order to increase exports to $19 billion.

Another area of work is increasing the efficiency of agriculture. For this purpose, it is planned to allocate 1.7 trillion soums plus $300 million from international organizations for concreting canals and water conservation.

An important issue was the development of human capital, for which it is planned to allocate 102.5 trillion soums – 15% more than this year. The President proposed to allocate funds for the construction of 150 schools in addition to the 317 already budgeted.

From 2024, a full-scale launch of the “mahalla budget” is expected, within the framework of which it is planned to allocate up to 100 million soums to the mahalla. The head of state recommended that they should be directed primarily to creating jobs and meeting the needs of the population.