Uzbekistan Seeks to Entice Investors
Uzbekistan Seeks to Entice Investors
The Uzbek authorities are establishing a new agency to help attract investment and loans from abroad.
In late August, the authorities announced the creation of the Interdepartmental Council for Cooperation with International Financial Institutions, Organisations and Donor Countries.
The new body will have a substantial staff of 2,500.
As well as actively seeking new investment, the council will have oversight over major projects funded by international financial institutions.
NBCentral Asia commentators believe part of the thinking behind the agency is to clear away the complicated bureaucracy facing investors, and place just one organisation in charge of dealing with them. At the moment, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and the Coordinating Council for Investment Projects both have responsibilities – often overlapping – in this area.
An employee of an investment company who gave his name as Farhod said anyone planning to invest in Uzbekistan the local projects becomes exasperated by the long wait for the various permits required in order to start up commercial activity.
“Investors are simply tired of pacing the corridors of the [foreign economic relations] ministry,” he said. “Imagine an office where the staff have to call a superior about the tiniest matter, and are unable to respond to basic requests for weeks on end.”
This view is shared by Dilmurod Kholmatov, an independent expert in Tashkent who argues that many investors are reluctant to put money into the Uzbek economy.
Although foreign investors enjoy a range of legal protections and the right to repatriate capital unhindered, in practice they can run into problems at any moment. For example, the authorities can freeze their bank accounts or prevent them exchanging local currency so they can transfer it abroad.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
In late August, the authorities announced the creation of the Interdepartmental Council for Cooperation with International Financial Institutions, Organisations and Donor Countries.
The new body will have a substantial staff of 2,500.
As well as actively seeking new investment, the council will have oversight over major projects funded by international financial institutions.
NBCentral Asia commentators believe part of the thinking behind the agency is to clear away the complicated bureaucracy facing investors, and place just one organisation in charge of dealing with them. At the moment, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and the Coordinating Council for Investment Projects both have responsibilities – often overlapping – in this area.
An employee of an investment company who gave his name as Farhod said anyone planning to invest in Uzbekistan the local projects becomes exasperated by the long wait for the various permits required in order to start up commercial activity.
“Investors are simply tired of pacing the corridors of the [foreign economic relations] ministry,” he said. “Imagine an office where the staff have to call a superior about the tiniest matter, and are unable to respond to basic requests for weeks on end.”
This view is shared by Dilmurod Kholmatov, an independent expert in Tashkent who argues that many investors are reluctant to put money into the Uzbek economy.
Although foreign investors enjoy a range of legal protections and the right to repatriate capital unhindered, in practice they can run into problems at any moment. For example, the authorities can freeze their bank accounts or prevent them exchanging local currency so they can transfer it abroad.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
