On July 26, a meeting on the issues of implementation of projects involving foreign investment, eliminating shortcomings in this direction and accelerating the development of investment funds was held under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
It was attended by the Prime Minister and his deputies, heads of ministries and departments, companies and associations, the Chairman of the Jokargy Kenes of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, the khokims of the regions and the city of Tashkent, heads of diplomatic missions of Uzbekistan abroad.
It was noted that this year within the framework of investment and infrastructure programs it is planned to implement 2,612 projects at the expense of all sources of financing and to master over 6 billion 850 million dollars. Of these, 4.9 billion dollars are foreign investments, including 2,3 billion dollars – loans from international financial institutions and 2,6 billion dollars – direct investments.
At the meeting, an unsatisfactory state of development of these funds and implementation of projects was criticized. So, this year, within the framework of 82 projects involving international organizations and foreign countries, it is planned to master 2 billion 283 million dollars. However, in the first half of the year only 26 percent of this amount has been disbursed.
One of the main reasons for this is the practice of application up to 70 percent of funds by the end of the year. Foreign investors express reasonable dissatisfaction with this phenomenon. Another reason is that credit resources are attracted not by carefully developed projects with ready documentation, but for reasons of “first get the funds, and then think about it”. It should be noted that the slower the application of funds is, the more difficult it will be to attract investments for implementation of future projects.
Taking this into account, the heads of corresponding complexes of the Cabinet of Ministers must thoroughly study the state of investment development and take measures on eliminating problems, including bureaucratic obstacles in development of project documentation, conducting tenders, examination of projects and contracts.