ELECTORAL PROGRAM OF THE CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN HATAMJON ABDURAHMONOVICH KETMONOV

The program embodies such noble ends as strict adherence to the norms of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, protection of national interests, preservation and consolidation of the country’s independence, promotion of prosperity and peace in the republic, civic and interethnic harmony as well as social stability, which help address the chief strategic objective – to have Uzbekistan join the ranks of advanced democratic nations and secure a well-deserved standing in the world community.

The program is built on the ideological principles and policy priorities of the Peoples’ Democratic Party of Uzbekistan. These priorities derive from the decision taken by the parliamentary group of the party to declare itself opposition to the Bloc of Democratic Forces made up of the majority in the parliament, including:

— Consolidation of the regulative role of the state in executing the strong social policy directed at the enhancement of the living conditions of all strata of population, particularly the vulnerable layers of the society, on the basis of socially-oriented market economy, deriving from the growing economic potential of the country;

— Elaboration and implementation of justified and modern mechanisms of defining the standards of minimal consumer expenditure;

— Optimization of the costs of public utility services through the development of government tariff regulations on providing public services;

— Realization of new methods of organization of population employment, bolstering the parliamentary control over the execution of the program designed to create jobs;

— Provision of mutual interconnectedness of key criteria of the most critical social-economic program on creating jobs for graduates of secondary special education institutions.

The top priority for us is, first of all, protection of interests of those layers of society that should be supported by the state and society.

In order to further this goal we consider it essential to pay special attention to the array of social-economic problems. In particular, a critical prerequisite for the protection of interests and improvement of living conditions for the vulnerable layers of society is the creation of worthwhile workplaces. Therefore, we suggest that the significance of supporting the citizens’ personal initiative and enterprise and their striving for well-paid work cannot be overestimated.

As a crucial issue we consider the creation for adolescents, regardless of their social background, equitable, socially adopted conditions of choice of occupation, guaranteed complete education and employment after graduation.

In the sphere of social protection we deem it essential to realize strong social policy, which includes issues of forming an effective system of pension provision and social allowances that guarantee the complete satisfaction of the needs of people in retirement, the disabled, the children left without parental custody, other social groups of vulnerable part of the population. Along with this, we are for the provision of the quality of social and public utility services, their availability for the needy.

Our major slogan is "Our goal is to further uplift the level and quality of life of the people!"

In order to implement such large-scale and socially-oriented tasks we have identified the following priority areas:

Our priority remains the further implementation of the concept "From a strong state to a strong civil society." To this end, measures will be taken for the development of effective mechanisms of public control, elevation of the role and importance of mahalla institution in our society, expansion of its powers and stance, and consolidation of its material-technical base.

We consistently continue working to enhance the role of the media, to further strengthen their economic fundamentals and material base as well as the protection of professional activities of journalists.

I. It is necessary to ensure the constant improvement of the employment system, implementation of modern methods of addressing this challenge.

To achieve objectives in this field we put forward the slogans: "Employment is our most basic duty," "Employment is the most effective way of social protection!", "A decent job for everyone!", "A decent wage for each person!” For these purposes we offer the following:

– assessment of the implementation of social and economic programs on the basis of indicators of creation of stable workplaces as one of important criteria of efficiency of their accomplishment;

– transition to new approaches in the development and execution of annually adopted state programs of creation of workplaces and employment of the population and prevention on this basis of outflow of labor force abroad. At the same time it is necessary to pay main attention to issues: complete study, evaluation of the demand and supply in the labor market; correct and accurate determination of the current and prospective directions of progress in the case of elaboration of programs of social and economic development of territories;

– reinforcement of measures to ensure employment of the workable population in enterprises offering stable jobs with decent wages, primarily on high-tech businesses, providing processing of rich domestic mineral resources and agricultural products, and enterprises and organizations of the sphere of services, active involvement in these areas of the country’s available labour resources;

– expansion of the practice of providing preferential micro-loans in order to ensure self-employment of graduates of professional colleges, as well as creating favorable conditions to encourage their individual labor and entrepreneurial activity, the exemption from fees set in starting their own business as well as from all taxes, for a certain period, to complete the activities;

– in working out investing programs on the development of perspective production, ensuring their interrelation with programs of training of specialists with secondary vocational and higher education institutions, and also with local programs of employment;

– fixing specific corporate entities and employers to profile colleges and creation of a permanent sheaf "enterprise-college";

– ensuring interrelation of training and acquiring modern professions with the implementation of priority social and economic programs;

– enhancement of practice of stimulation of corporate entities and organizations paying tuition fees of students of higher educational institutions for training specialties in which these entities feel the need;

– enhancement of the system of taxation for the purpose of creation of privileges and stimulation of entrepreneurship entities creating stable workplaces with worthy salary and working conditions;

– improvement of the accounting system of the current and future needs of businesses and organizations in the frames in determining the areas of training of specialists with higher and secondary special education;

– perfection of the efficiency of women’s employment through further development of small business, home-based work, family business. Creating a more favorable environment for a wide realization by women of the rights and benefits secured for them by the labor legislation;

– ensuring full employment, improving the legislative framework of employment of persons engaged in temporary employment, the development and introduction of regulatory frameworks addressing issues related to their pensions and social security;

– reduction in the scope of the legislation is not designed labor relations agreements between employer and employee by establishing various benefits. Increased the liability of enterprises for violation of safety rules, the establishment of strict state control in these areas;

– development of mechanisms to create specialized enterprises for disabled persons, including through the development of the network for these companies at the expense of centralized state investment;

– extension of the scope of works at home persons with disabilities (disabled) by the legislative establishment of large enterprises to establish a quota for their home-based jobs.

II. Our main priority in economic policy is the further improvement in living standards of the population, in particular its needy segments, through a combination of increasing financial and economic capacities of our country with a strong social policy.

The slogan aimed at the vital interests of our people - "economic reforms - social efficiency!" - captures the essence of our approach to the economic reforms implemented in the country.

According to the People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, increased purchasing power will increase domestic demand, which is the driving force of economic progress, a solid foundation for building a consistent pace of development of the real sector of the economy.

To this end, we propose the implementation of economic reforms following:

— Strengthening strict control over the targeted use of budgetary funds, particularly funds allocated to the social sector;

— Increasing the use of the economic capabilities of the state on ways to improve the living standards of all segments of the population, primarily low-income;

— Focusing the attention to the issues of formation of the competitive environment, which contributes to the quality produced by economic entities of products and services through the use of modern techniques and technologies, reduce costs, expand export opportunities, increasing purchasing power;

— Developing measures aimed at the organization of production based on modern techniques and technologies, by attracting foreign direct investment;

— Further enhancing the participation of commercial banks in the financing of investment projects, the simplification of business entities of credit system, based on macroeconomic situation - the definition of interest rates at a minimum, prevent the emergence of bad debts and increased their investment activity by improving the quality of banking services;

— Improving the public procurement system by expanding the areas open and transparent electronic trading, creating conditions for free competition between suppliers.

Engagement of free labor force for the development of promising enterprises and industrial complexes is important to ensure consistently high economic growth rates.

For this purpose we propose the following:

— Financial and economic incentives for the production by enterprises to process local raw materials, competitive in the domestic and foreign markets, consumer goods with high added value, improving the efficiency of concessional lending;

— Raising the responsibility of public authorities and management of the development and implementation of regional programs of development of production of goods and services aimed at saturation of the domestic market due to its own products, to prevent price increases;

— Encouraging family businesses and home-based work in the processing of the country’s agricultural products;

— Maintaining tax policies that promote integration of operating in our country, small businesses, the introduction of the category of enterprises the concept of "medium-size enterprise", that is, define the criteria for large, medium and small enterprises, the development of the system of taxes and benefits, serving as consolidation and further development of small enterprises.

In addition, for the purposes of modernization of the construction sphere as an important factor of accelerated economic development and job creation, the development of a broad construction companies, providing their respective current requirements specialists, technical equipment, we propose:

— to improve logistics of building organizations, the introduction of new technologies in the industry, reducing the tax burden in order to create conditions that allow the recruitment of qualified professionals;

— instead of outdated construction standards, rules and regulations used since the days of the former regime, to switch to a worldwide system of Eurocodes;

— to boost attention to the issue of training at the appropriate level of qualified specialists in accordance with the prospects of the construction sector, the establishment of the system of professional development in foreign countries;

— to create conditions for Uzbek companies to export construction and services to foreign markets through the application of new innovative technologies and materials, ensure the competitiveness of domestic experts on the construction services market.

III. It is necessary to further increase the efficiency of social protection of low-income families, the elderly and the disabled. In this direction, we put forward the slogan "We will fight for a strong social protection of low-income people!"

To further this goal we offer the following steps and actions:

— direction of the social support system in the prevention of dependency among those in need of social assistance sectors of the population, support their employment and entrepreneurship, promotion of initiative. In our opinion, "Social support - the path to the initiative!";

— direction of benefits and material assistance to mainly low-income families, the elderly and children in need of financial assistance;

— adoption of measures to enhance the role of the mahalla as a center of social protection of the population based on the principles of social justice, transparency and openness, kindness and mercy;

— further development of the practice of allocation of preferential loans and interest-free loans employable citizens seeking to organize their own business;

— introduction of financial assistance monthly payments replacement mechanism and social benefits to poor families a lump sum payment of the total amount of funds in the same period, provided their intended use for their own businesses;

— provision of further improving the effectiveness of state and public control over the formation of prices for socially important goods and essential services, so that the rise in prices and tariffs on them does not exceed the rate of inflation;

– in order to ensure the availability of social housing, improve the mechanisms of directing a portion of funds received from privatization of state property, the formation of the housing stock;

– improvement of appropriate infrastructure in order to address the prevention of traffic jams on the streets and roads of big cities, resulting from the increase in the country’s vehicles, the implementation of major repairs of footpaths, as well as the construction of eco-friendly bicycle paths, promoting healthy lifestyle;

– achievement of cost optimization of utility services to the population through the development of cost-effective stand-alone (local) forms of the provision of public services not related to the branch of engineering infrastructure;

– improvement of the mechanisms of state regulation of prices and tariffs of utilities (gas, electricity and heat supply, sewerage, waste, etc.), provided to the population by natural monopoly entities;

– consolidation of the regulatory role of the state in the implementation of strong social policy, limiting the commercialization of leading social spheres to meet this priority, improving business responsibility in ensuring all members of society reliable social guarantees. The implementation of this task, we are guided by the slogan "Strong social protection our main target!"

– the basis of such slogans as "Decent pensions for senior citizens", "We are responsible for the wellbeing of the elderly!" is the idea of the creation of decent living conditions for the older generation, who have made a significant contribution to the development of the country, leaving a free and prosperous homeland to the younger generation.

Today, our main objectives include issues to ensure full participation of disabled persons in social life. To create favorable conditions for persons with disabilities is necessary to ensure the availability of social facilities, all buildings and structures of a special entrance for the disabled - ramps, as well as adapt to footpaths. To this end, consider it necessary to conduct an inventory of all buildings and structures in terms of having the entrance for the disabled, the adoption of a special state program on adaptation for disabled, device paths for them.

IV. Expansion of opportunities for the population of for a quality education and affordable health care is also the focus of our constant attention. Based on this, we consider it necessary to undertake following measures:

In the education sector:

– to create opportunities for a free and equal education of all sectors of society, taking into account the demographic changes in the region - to further develop the practice of early construction of pre-school institutions, secondary, and higher education;

– expansion of the network of state preschool educational institutions operating on the basis of free and preferential payments;

– measures to ensure the full educational literature colleges and academic lyceums;

– based on the needs of businesses and organizations - to stimulate the issue of target enrollment in higher education institutions in certain specialties;

– further development of an inclusive education system, covering the provision of disabled children need special literature and textbooks, providing incentives for teachers in this area, further expansion of learning opportunities in higher education of students with disabilities (people with disabilities);

– establishment of legislative bases of the organization of home work as a caregiver family preschool education for women, having pedagogical education, but is temporarily not working due to childcare.

In the healthcare sector:

– expansion of opportunities available and timely first aid to the population, especially residents of remote villages, improvement of rural health units;

– consolidation of the system of control over the implementation of legislation governing the provision of skilled care on a preferential basis and free of charge;

– intensification of state and public control over the activities of pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies, as well as the prices of drugs, restrictions on advertising of medicines;

– amplification of state and public control over ensuring the availability of public health facilities in the list of essential drugs and preferential selection of certain categories of persons.

V. Formation of a democratic state ruled by law and open civil society is the principal objective. To this end we propose to:

– seek adoption of laws in the field of regulation of socially important issues primarily of direct action, that is, without reference rules;

– consistently develop practices ensure the participation of civil society in an open and constructive discussion of laws and other regulations, the performance of public administration;

– establish mandatory public discussion of draft normative legal acts on the provision of targeted social protection of vulnerable groups, as well as on issues affecting the most important aspects of social and economic life of the country and are of particular public interest;

– further increase the rights and powers of political parties and deputy groups in matters of influence on the decision on the ground of current economic and social problems related to the interests of the permanent voters;

– adopt measures for the development based on modern information and communication technology network of points providing free public access to a single portal of interactive public services;

– extensively develop the practice of social partnership between the state and civil society institutions;

– develop measures to increase the availability of judicial mechanisms for the protection of citizens’ rights and improve the quality of execution of judgments by strengthening judicial control in these matters;

– secure widespread introduction of information and communication technologies in the judicial process, including the implementation of an electronic management system of citizens’ appeals in the courts and obtain court documents.

VI. In foreign political activity we propose the following:

– open and pragmatic policy towards the neighboring countries, the development of mutually beneficial cooperation with them in trade-economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres;

– promotion of international initiatives in improving the environmental situation in the region, the rational use of water resources of trans-boundary rivers in Central Asia;

– active participation of Uzbekistan in providing for regional security and stability. Given this, it is essential to develop and consolidate interaction with Central Asian nations and other countries of the world as well as prominent international organizations in countering terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and other threats.

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Implementation of priority policy directions outlined in the program will serve for the comprehensive development of the country, perfection of the social effectiveness of reforms in all sectors, elevation of living standards, enhancement of democratic reforms and the advancement of civil society.

Republican Press Center for Covering the
Elections of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan

www.elections.uz