Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - On 5 July, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev got acquainted with the presentation of projects in the field of agricultural engineering and the chemical industry.

A year ago, on 8 July, a resolution was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan on increasing the efficiency of the activities of agricultural engineering organizations. According to the document, state shares in the authorized capital of the Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant, the Tashkent Aggregate Plant, the Chirchik Agricultural Machinery Plant and Technolog JSC were transferred to the trust management of the Uzavtosanoat Joint Stock Company for three years. At the same time, tasks were set to increase the profitability of enterprises, improve product quality and reduce costs.

Over the past period, the production areas of the Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant have been optimized by 68 percent, the efficiency of equipment operation has been increased. As a result, the cost of production decreased by 4 percent and saved about 45 billion soums. Negotiations were held with foreign manufacturers - the cost of tractors with a capacity of 80-100 horsepower has been reduced by 15-20 percent.

A partnership has been established with the Minsk Tractor Plant. Within the framework of this cooperation, it is planned to produce 3 thousand tractors per year in Uzbekistan.

At the same time, there is still a lot to be done to increase the technological and production potential of enterprises, to provide agriculture with modern equipment. The fact that the level of utilization of the existing capacities of the industry is 19 percent, and the level of localization is on average 20 percent, is absolutely unsatisfactory, was noted at the event. Moreover, the cost of domestically produced equipment is 10-15 percent more expensive than imported ones.

In this regard, the presentation discussed measures to create a cluster of agricultural engineering, increase capacity utilization and increase the level of localization.

Particular attention is paid to the issues of transferring industry enterprises from Tashkent to Chirchik and organizing a cluster of agricultural engineering on their basis.

Thus, the factories of agricultural machinery in Tashkent and Chirchik, the Tashkent Aggregate Plant, the Technolog and UzKlaas Agro enterprises will be located in one place and united into an industrial cluster. 1.2 thousand pieces of equipment and devices, 28 types of equipment will be optimized, the utilization of production capacities will be increased to 85 percent, localization - up to 50 percent. As a result, production costs are expected to decrease by 20 percent and profitability of enterprises is expected to increase by 10 percent.

The Ministry of Finance was instructed to allocate 500 billion soums for the initial costs associated with the creation of the cluster. These funds will be returned through the sale through an auction of buildings and structures, land plots of industry enterprises.

The President gave instructions on expanding localization and reducing the cost of equipment. In particular, the task was set to increase the level of localization of tractors produced jointly with the Minsk Tractor Plant to 40 percent next year and up to 50 percent in 2023, to bring localization at the UzKlaas Agro enterprise to 25 percent.

It also indicated the need to provide preferences to farms and clusters when purchasing domestically produced equipment. Thus, it was proposed to reduce the initial lease payment from 25 to 15 percent, the interest rate from 16 to 7 percent, to extend the lease term from 5 to 7 years.

Instructions were given to improve the agricultural machinery service system based on the study of international experience.

During the presentation, projects related to the creation of chemical clusters were also considered.

In particular, it is planned to implement 23 projects worth US$3.4 billion in the cluster based on the Navoiazot Joint Stock Company. As a result, production facilities will be created for US$1.8 billion a year and more than 3.1 thousand jobs.

An enterprise for the production of urea-formaldehyde concentrate and resin was recently commissioned. This year, a project to organize the production of sulfuric acid will be implemented.

It is also planned to organize the production of carbon fibers on the basis of the joint venture "Electrokimezavodi" in the city of Navoi.

The presentation provides information on the ongoing work to create a scientific and chemical cluster in the village of Ulugbek.