“Because there was no political will, we were all slaves to cotton, in fact,” Mirziyoyev said during a ceremony marking the commissioning of new facilities across Uzbekistan ahead of the country’s 35th anniversary of independence.

The president was responding to Erkinjon Turdimov, governor of Syrdarya region, who spoke about the reforms carried out in Uzbekistan over the past decade and said the country had freed itself from what he described as “cotton slavery”.

“You often say that we were dependent on cotton. You also freed us from cotton slavery. Schoolchildren could not leave the fields. These things did not happen on their own,” Turdimov said.

Mirziyoyev said the cotton system had kept the country focused on agricultural work for almost the entire year.

“We worked around the clock, 12 months a year – plowing, topping, defoliation and harvesting. We did nothing else,” the president said.

Under the Soviet system, cotton production dominated Uzbekistan’s agricultural sector, with schoolchildren and other members of society regularly mobilized for fieldwork. Mirziyoyev has previously criticized the legacy of the cotton-centered system.

Syrdarya shifts from agriculture to industry

Turdimov said Syrdarya region had transformed from an agricultural area into an increasingly industrialized region in recent years, pointing to the launch of new facilities as evidence of the changes.

He contrasted the current pace of development with the Soviet period, when, he said, major projects depended on decisions by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and often remained unfinished.

“Three years were needed to build one school,” Mirziyoyev added.

Turdimov said Syrdarya is expected to attract $2 billion in investment in 2026. Mirziyoyev noted that such a figure would once have seemed unrealistic for the region.

“Would anyone in Syrdarya have believed that it was possible to attract $2 billion in investment? No one would have believed it. But it can be done,” the president said.

According to Turdimov, investment in the region was negligible a decade ago, while the amount of investment per hectare in the Syrdarya Free Economic Zone has now reached nearly $4 million.

The governor also said local residents were optimistic about the region’s prospects and ready to carry out the tasks set by the president.