MARCH 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD rounded off a visit to Uzbekistan by promising to invest in the country for the first time in a decade, giving Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev a major boost.
EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti flew to Tashkent to meet Mr Mirziyoyev to discuss the terms of the return, a decade on since a row over human rights scuppered relations.
In a statement, the EBRD said that it was looking forward to helping to give private enterprise a boost and to help open up the country after years of isolation under Islam Karimov.
“I am delighted that the EBRD is re-engaging with Uzbekistan. These discussions have been highly fruitful and there is great interest on both sides in reinvigorating the relationship between the Bank and Uzbekistan,” the EBRD quoted Mr Chakrabarti in a press release.
“This is a new beginning in EBRD- Uzbek relations.”
It is only seven months since the death of Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan for 25 years, but already Mr Mirziyoyev has attracted much needed investment into the country. Earlier this month Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao visited Uzbekistan and promised to lend $573m to fund four projects, including a scheme to fund small businesses in rural areas.
Funding from institutional banks such as the EBRD and the ADB have been instrumental in helping Central Asia’s economies develop. The EBRD phased out its involvement in Uzbekistan gradually after it held its 2003 AGM in Tashkent. That meeting was marked by a row between Uzbekistan and the EBRD over media freedom and prisoners’ rights. The relationship never recovered during Karimov’s lifetime and the EBRD’s last investment in Uzbekistan was in 2007.
As a comparison, the EBRD said that it has invested €11.6b into Central Asia. Of this, Uzbekistan, where roughly half of Central Asia’s population live, received €894m. That’s roughly 8% of the total.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
