Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — On 1 February, Uzbekistan will kick off the first season of participatory budgeting on the Open Budget portal, according to the press service of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Initiatives from the public will be accepted until 20 February. The selection of applications will take place from 21 February to 7 March campaigning will occur from 8 to 10 March, and voting will run from 11 to 20 March. The winners of the first season will be announced on 21 March.

According to changes approved by the decision of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis on 13 January, sufficient funds will be allocated annually to implement between 10 and 30 projects in each district or city. This establishes minimum and maximum limits on the number of supported initiatives.

If the number of applications exceeds 10, the funds will be distributed proportionally based on the population size of the district or city, allowing more densely populated regions to receive more funding.

The maximum cost of a single project is set at 1.5 billion soums. As a result, the minimum amount of funds allocated from local budgets will be 15 billion soums, and the maximum will be 45 billion soums.