Sandvik, ABB, Ericsson Eye Uzbekistan as Sweden Deepens Trade Ties

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Sweden's Corporate Giants Signal Uzbekistan Entry as Tashkent Roundtable Unlocks $240 Billion Growth Story

Six of Sweden's largest corporations — Sandvik, ABB, Elekta, AstraZeneca, SKF, and Ericsson — have signaled readiness to move toward concrete investment projects in Uzbekistan following a high-level roundtable in Tashkent, where officials presented the country's $240 billion GDP target for 2030 and its GSP+ gateway to European markets.

The Uzbek-Swedish roundtable brought together Deputy Minister of Investments, Industry and Trade Akram Aliyev and Sweden's State Secretary for Foreign Trade Diana Janse alongside diplomatic representatives and senior corporate executives. The session combined B2B and B2G formats, culminating in participants confirming readiness to proceed to the practical implementation phase of joint investment projects.

Uzbekistan's macroeconomic pitch was anchored in strong recent numbers: GDP reached $147 billion in 2025, with $150 billion in cumulative foreign investment attracted. The 2030 target of $240 billion in national economic output framed the opportunity for Swedish partners.

A central commercial lever presented to the Swedish side was the GSP+ preferential trade system, which allows duty-free exports of 6,200 categories of Uzbek goods to the European market — a significant incentive for Swedish firms considering Uzbekistan as a manufacturing or sourcing base. In turn, Swedish companies expressed interest in using Uzbekistan as an entry point to a broader 80-million-consumer Central Asian regional market.

Four priority partnership vectors emerged from the discussions. Pharmaceuticals, anchored around the Tashkent Pharma Park cluster, was identified as a localization opportunity for Swedish healthcare firms including Elekta and AstraZeneca. Information technology drew interest on the back of investor tax incentives running through 2040. Mining and extractive industry cooperation was flagged for companies such as Sandvik and SKF. And the energy transition — specifically Uzbekistan's target of raising green generation to 54 percent of the energy mix by 2030 — opened a lane for ABB and other grid and power technology providers.