8 reasons why you should invest in Uzbekistan
1. Cheap electricity and availability of wide range of natural resources
An important advantage of the country is that Uzbekistan is one of the few countries in the world economy with absolute energy independence. Uzbekistan possesses huge reserves of minerals and natural resources. The country occupies leading positions in the world in terms of gold, uranium, copper, silver, lead, zinc, tungsten, rare metals and other resources. The country is among the top ten countries on reserves of oil and gas, coal and uranium. The electricity price is 4 times cheaper than the average price paid by industrial customers in developed countries.
2. One of the most diversified economies in Central Asia
The country has the most diversified economy in Central Asia. Uzbekistan is the only Central Asian state producing a wide range of modern cars with General Motors, trucks with MAN, high-quality agricultural machinery from the mini-tractors to harvesters jointly with German CLAAS and LEMKEN, South Korean LS Mtron, the region's largest producer of chemical, textile, food, building materials, electronics and electrical engineering products.
3. Well educated and young population of the country
Presence of significant human and intellectual potential meets modern international standards of education. More than half of the population of our country is young people who take the mandatory 12-year education and receive in-depth knowledge of at least 2 modern professions, information technologies, and learn at least two foreign languages. Uzbekistan created a number of branches of leading European, Asian and Russian universities, in particular the British Westminster University and Singapore Institute of Management and Development, Turin Polytechnic University, Inha University in Tashkent and others.
4. Uzbekistan geographically is the key to enter Central Asian market
The advantageous geographical location and proximity to major markets is another attractive factor of Uzbekistan for foreign investors. The country possesses the largest consumer market in the region with more than 32 million people. It is about half of the total population of Central Asia. Thanks to well-developed transport infrastructure, enterprises of Uzbekistan have the opportunity to enter the largest and fastest-growing markets in Central Asia and Afghanistan (with a population of over 90 million people), CIS countries (with a population of over 300 million people), West and East Asia, as well as Europe. Free trade agreements on with 11 CIS countries provide duty-free importation of Uzbek producers’ goods to these markets. Uzbekistan also has agreements with 45 countries on providing Most Favored Nation treatment, which improves the competitiveness of Uzbek products on foreign markets.
5. Highly developed transport infrastructure
Transport and communication sector and foreign trade cargo routes diversification are of primary importance for Uzbekistan, which is a land lock country. Uzbek railways, whose international goods transportation share is 93% are playing special role in transport sector in Uzbekistan. Total developed railways length is 6 479.65 km, including operational length of 229.7 km, station tracks of 1 883.05 km. Railways average density in Uzbekistan is 13.5 km per 1000 sq. km. of country’s area. In the total cargo turnover by all types of transport modes the share of rail transport reaches 53.0% (excluding pipelines), and in passenger traffic – 3.8%.
The 123.1 km “Angren-Pap” railway line has completed the formation of a unified network of railways in Uzbekistan, creation of a new international transit railway corridor China-Central Asia to Europe. Road transport is a key element in the country’s transport system, connecting major industrial centers, cities, regions and rural areas. The roads total length in Uzbekistan is over 180,000 kilometers including 3.2 thousand kilometers of roads of international importance.
The Uzbekistan Airways National Airline is the flag carrier of the Republic of Uzbekistan that meets the demand of the national economy and population for air transportation services (cargo, passenger and special aviation tasks). The airline regularly flies to over 40 cities of the world in Europe and Asia, the US and Japan. It has its representative offices in 25 countries of the world. Uzbekistan Airways’ fleet consists of Boeing 757 and 767, Airbus 320, and Airbus 300-600 cargo aircrafts.
6. The country's financial system possesses "stable" rating by international rating agencies
Implementation of structural transformation and diversification of the economy is supported by steady growth of banks' resource base, expansion of the share of long-term funding sources and increase of commercial banks role in these processes. If in 1990 loans exceeding three years constituted about 24% of the total loan portfolio, now their share is 80%. Thanks to the sustainable growth of aggregated capital of the commercial banks in Uzbekistan and balanced management policy of assets portfolio, current capital adequacy ratio is ensured and three times higher than international standards of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. For the fifth consecutive year, Moody's international rating agency assesses the prospects of the banking system of Uzbekistan as “stable”. Now, all commercial banks of the Republic are rated with a stable outlook from leading international rating companies, as Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch Ratings.
7. There is an access to a large financial resources provided by financial institutions
Uzbekistan Fund for Reconstruction and Development (UFRD), created in 2006, plays an important role in the implementation of modernization and effective investment policy in the Republic. Its assets reached $25 billion this year. The active participation of the UFRD in implementation of new infrastructure projects has been served to attract more than $10 billion of foreign investment and loans in the form of co-financing from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, financial institutions of Japan, South Korea, China and other foreign banks and investors.
8. Uzbekistan's achievements are recognized by international rankings
Uzbekistan’s achievements and milestones are widely recognized by the world community. In particular, our country occupies the 5th place in the Fast Growing Economies ranking of the World Economic Forum. According to the “World Happiness Report” conducted by sociologists at the Columbia University (USA), with the assistance of the United Nations, Uzbekistan took 44th place out of 158 countries and the first place among the CIS countries. Last October the World Bank published the rating of “Doing Business 2017”, with the fact that Uzbekistan has risen to 16 positions from 2015 and ranked as 87th. According to the report, Uzbekistan improved its position in ranking on such criteria as property registration (75th place, +6 positions), protecting minority investors (70th place, +8 positions), paying taxes (138 place, +1) and trading across border (165th place, +1 position).
The report added that four procedures required in Uzbekistan to register enterprise, which is lower than average in the Europe and Central Asia (4.8) and OECD member states (4.9). The registration term is 5.5 days in Uzbekistan against 10.2 days in Europe and Central Asia and 8.3 days in the OECD countries. — SG
