The WB offered Uzbekistan ways to increase the inflow of direct investment and create new sources of economic growth

The World Bank provided a report with recommendations on increasing the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Uzbekistan and creating new sources of economic growth here.

The report will serve as a basis for further work of interested government bodies to develop a new strategy for attracting foreign direct investment until 2026, as well as their retention in the country, as well as wider distribution across industries and regions.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the war in Ukraine and shifts in global production and trade chains have influenced the rethinking of the approaches of multinational corporations in their international investment strategies. Given this context, the WB report offers the government of Uzbekistan a strategic vision and specific targets for attracting FDI (foreign direct investment).
In order to develop a targeted investment promotion program, the report uses a special methodology to identify industries that are most attractive to investors. They fall into two categories:
1) “ready for promotion” to attract FDI
2) “promising” to attract FDI.
In the sectors belonging to the first category, there is a high probability of attracting FDI in the short and medium term (production of electrical equipment, packaging materials, banking and renewable energy sources, etc.).
Industries belonging to the second category require the implementation of additional government policy measures and reforms to fully unlock their potential in order to increase their attractiveness to investors (food industry and production of building materials, etc.).
The report makes recommendations for implementing reforms that will help improve the country’s competitiveness in terms of attracting quality foreign investment. These include reforms in the following areas:
– modernization of investment legislation;
– streamlining and modernizing incentives for foreign investors;
– improvement of the investment climate in priority sectors of the economy;
– strengthening the processes and institutions responsible for promoting and realizing investment opportunities;
– using the potential of the process of privatization of state enterprises and public-private partnerships (PPP) in order to attract additional FDI.

Source: uznews.uz