Uzbekistan unveils nearly €1 billion plan for business growth

Uzbekistan has announced a five-part business reform plan with nearly €1 billion in earmarked funding for finance, AI, exports and business expansion. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev presented the measures during his annual open dialogue with entrepreneurs in Khiva on Entrepreneurs Day, with around 25,000 business representatives joining from across the country.

The plan includes a digital credit portal where businesses can submit one application and receive competing bank offers, while new entrepreneurs will be able to apply online for loans of up to around €365,000. For loans of up to 10 billion soums (around €731,000), businesses will need to provide only 25% of the collateral themselves, with the remaining 75% shared between the state, the Business Guarantee Company and banks. Advance payments for eligible electricity and gas customers will fall from 100% to 15%.

Under AI Partner for 10,000 Enterprises, the state plans to cover half of companies’ costs of introducing AI and offer free supercomputing access to businesses developing models for new products. At least $100 million (€86mn) is earmarked for the programme’s first phase. Export support includes $1 billion (€862mn) for a unified system, an Export Navigator tool, identifying 100 products with export potential and adapting production at 2,000 companies to foreign market requirements.

Regulatory changes include a three-year moratorium on inspections for small businesses, except cases involving harm to human health or other businesses’ interests. Business fines are due to be cut by half on average, and a planned presumption in favour of entrepreneurs would prevent sanctions until fault is established in court.