Financing of the Economic Management Improvement Program

The Uzbek authorities have committed the country to a double transition - from a centrally planned economy to a market economy and from a closed to an open economy - while seeking to prevent the risks of social downgrading and strengthening the rule of law.

AFD supports this reform initiative with a public policy loan programme over the period 2018-2021 combining a series of three budget loans, a dialogue on the modernisation of its economic and financial governance, and a technical assistance programme. This project is the first step of the loan programme.

The project aims to establish a stable and favourable macroeconomic framework for growth by:

improving macroeconomic data collection, analysis and dissemination systems to improve decision-making;

strengthening public financial management and banking supervision to limit the budgetary and financial risks weighing on the State;

modernising governance of State-owned enterprises and public-private partnerships (PPPs) in order to improve the quality of public services and public investment.

At the end of the three subprograms (by 2022), the expected impacts are:

• a better transparency of statistical information via the Central Bank website and IMF data dissemination system;
• more efficient public expenditures by implementing a medium-term budget framework enabling to pilot expenditures on a three-year horizon within the ministries and a better supervision of the state-owned enterprises;
• an increase of private investment thanks to a reform of banking regulation offering a larger range of investment and saving tools;
• improvement of the performance and services of State-owned enterprises by adopting new rules on corporate governance in order to limit the risks faced by the State and make managers accountable for achieving their objectives.