The first organizational meeting of the Republican Council for work with international ratings and indices

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - On 12 June 2020, the first organizational meeting of the Republican Council for work with international ratings and indices was held. Members of the event, held in the form of a videoconference, were members of the Council, heads of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, state authorities and administration, representatives of research institutions.

The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the chairman of the Republican Council for work with international ratings and indices Tanzila Narbaeva.

It was noted that at present, more than 100 international ratings and indices are conducted by authoritative international structures. They are the basis for assessing the level of development of countries and companies in the economic, social, political, legal spheres and other areas.

That is why over the past four years, consistent reforms have been carried out in this direction in the country. Thanks to the results achieved, in the Heritage Fund’s Index of Economic Freedom, our country has risen 52 positions, in the Logistics Performance Index - by 19 positions, in the World Bank’s Index of Doing Business - by 18 positions.

During the meeting, it was noted that the Presidential Decree “On improving the position of the Republic of Uzbekistan in international ratings and indices, as well as the introduction of a new systematic mechanism for working with them in government bodies and organizations” created for the first time in our country a Republican Council for working with international ratings and indices.

The Chairman of the Senate Oliy Majlis especially dwelt on the goals and objectives of the council.

It was noted that the new structure is responsible for conducting a systematic analysis of the level of socio-economic, political and legal development of the country, ensuring that the fundamental transformations carried out in various fields are taken into account in order to improve the position of our country in international ratings and indices that are priority for the Republic of Uzbekistan, and also the elimination of problems that hinder the effectiveness of work in this direction.

Tanzila Narbaeva noted that until today all ministries and departments have been working in this direction without mutual coordination, henceforth their activities will be fully coordinated and supervised by the Council, which will ensure the successful implementation of this complex process and the use of all available opportunities in this direction. It was emphasized that the activities of all ministries and departments will be evaluated based on the country’s position in international ratings. This, in turn, will significantly increase the responsibility of government agencies in this matter.

Also, under the control of the Council, work will be organized, starting from the lower levels of ministries and departments to the republican and regional levels, in the context of regions, districts, and, if necessary, mahallas.

At the same time, the potential of local councils of people’s deputies will be widely used. Based on the results of the work carried out by the Council, relevant proposals and recommendations will be developed on further improvement of the legislation, solving current socio-economic problems.

The Chairman of the Senate noted that the reforms are primarily aimed at improving the well-being of the people. “All this is done for the people. International ratings can also be perceived as an indicator of population satisfaction. Since the reforms carried out in this direction contribute to improving the living standards of the people of Uzbekistan,” Tanzila Narbaeva emphasized.

The Senate Chairperson noted that in compiling international ratings as the main source, the relevant structures primarily rely on the opinions of representatives of civil society, therefore, ministries and departments responsible for the country’s positions in international ratings need to work directly with non-governmental non-profit organizations and citizens.

From this point of view, during the event, the focus of the discussion was activities in the socio-economic sphere, which must be implemented to improve the position of the Republic of Uzbekistan in international ratings and indices. At the same time, sharp criticism was given that responsible officials of ministries and departments for working with the indices assigned to them were not appointed, the necessary action plans and road maps in this direction were not developed. The need was noted for establishing strict control over the work carried out in this direction, for creating departments responsible for international ratings in every ministry and department. Attention is also focused on establishing a mechanism for collecting and working with statistical data necessary for compiling international ratings.

In addition, the participants of the event exchanged views on solving problems that hinder the increase of our country’s position in international ratings, preventing corruption, and obstructing entrepreneurial activity.

During the meeting, other issues related to the activities of the Council were considered.