OECD - SDA: Identifying new cooperation projects
Press office of the Agency strategic development
An online meeting of the OECD Eurasia Competitiveness Program for Central Asia and Eastern Europe and South Caucasus took place.
The meeting provided an opportunity to highlight the work of the Program in the region and the dynamism of partner countries in implementing economic reforms, as well as to strengthen the relationship of Central Asian countries with the OECD through the peer review and exchange of OECD best practices.
During the meeting Uzbekistan was represented by Laziz Kudratov - the General Director of the Strategic Development Agency.
- Since 2017, Uzbekistan has been pursuing an ambitious reform program aimed at opening up for the global business community and increasing the contribution of the private sector to economic development.
Specifically, Uzbekistan underwent its first-ever peer review
in the OECD Eurasia Competitiveness Roundtable in October 2017 and is involved in several regional projects. Besides, recent work on improving the business climate in Uzbekistan, as well as the monitoring of SME export promotion policies there have been two successful projects providing timely and targeted support to the policies developed by the government of Uzbekistan.
Going forward, the new project on competition initiated in September this year will further complement the recent reforms we implemented. This is a particularly timely project, as the post-pandemic era requires more than ever to create a level-playing field for private sector players and small and medium businesses.
We also hope to carry out an Investment Policy Review of Uzbekistan very soon. In the current context, where the world is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the successful implementation of this project will allow us to accelerate the realization process of our medium-term strategies for the post-pandemic recovery period and find the ways to maximize the positive impacts of foreign investments in the economy.
Moreover, we are also excited to undergo another peer-review process on digitalization of the private sector, conduct a Territorial Review of Uzbekistan as well as develop Regional FDI-SME linkage strategies for Uzbekistan in cooperation with the OECD.