The first Uzbekistan Country Platform Roundtable of the year convened today, reaffirming the joint commitment of the government and international partners to advance the implementation of the Uzbekistan-2030 Strategy. Over 90 representatives reviewed the progress made towards green growth and public finance management (PFM) and discussed an assessment of agriculture subsidies, while highlighting the urgency of reforms for the benefit of Uzbek citizens and businesses.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF), together with the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection, and Climate Change, underlined the government’s commitment to advancing reforms for sustaining economic growth. The government recognizes the impact of the rapid growth on the natural resources as well as the public health, with the air pollution being the primary concern. Participants of the roundtable reviewed the progress on the actions taken on green growth so far, while identifying priorities that still require more attention, especially during this year, i.e., the Year of Environmental Protection and a “Green” Economy.
MoEF also emphasized the critical role of fiscal transparency, performance-based budgeting, and public investment management in advancing green economic growth. The Ministry informed on the work ongoing towards the development of the new draft Strategy for Improving PFM in Uzbekistan for 2025-2030, with priority actions to be taken on digitalisation of the budget process, environmental and gender budgeting. On behalf of other relevant international partners, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) informed on the significant international support towards these directions and strengthening of the overall PFM framework.
The Delegation of the European Union to Uzbekistan presented the results of a study of the agricultural subsidy system in Uzbekistan, which was jointly carried out with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Ministry of Agriculture and MoEF. The results will help the government to have informed discussions as to how subsidies can be used to steer agricultural reforms, their impact on the state budget, and the implications for Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Ambassador of the European Union to Uzbekistan Toivo Klaar highlighted that the assessment shows that “Uzbekistan needs a more strategic approach to agricultural subsidies, to ensure that these are effective in driving reforms and efficient in their implementation. The aim should be to have these subsidies directly contribute to the development of a market-driven, internationally competitive, diverse, environmentally friendly, climate resilient and socially inclusive agri-food sector.”
As the discussions concluded, Abdulla Abdukadirov, First Deputy of the Agency for Strategic Reforms under the President, emphasized “Main aim of the Country Platform is to maintain the dialogue on reforms and coordination of all activities of foreign official development partners, including international financial institutions, working in the country in order to facilitate the implementation of the economic and social policy, targeted by the President. To achieve successfully this aim, the Country Platform needs a better administrative support from the government’s side. We need to make clearer the role, both in terms of responsibilities and rights, of the Board, Working Groups and the Secretariat of the Country Platform. Thus, ASR is working on the draft Special Presidential Decree to address these issues.”