Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 19-20 September this year, the Government Commission on the Development of Export and Investment under the leadership of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov and as part of the heads of ministries, departments, industry associations, commercial banks and local authorities summed up the work on the study of investment, industrial and export opportunities of the regions and the development of priority measures for the full use of the existing economic potential of Andijan and Namangan regions. 

The relevant working groups carried out their work in an offsite format in these regions from 15 to 20 September. An analysis was also made of the execution of instructions given during the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Ferghana region in June this year.

During the work in the Andijan region with visits to the enterprises, the current state of all 7914 industrial facilities was analyzed, and in the Namangan region - 6098 objects.

As a result, 1105 enterprises were identified that faced problems in production activities, including the need for credit resources to replenish working capital and purchase technological equipment, the need to connect to engineering communications, a lack of raw materials for production, difficulties in obtaining permits and licenses, allocation of land plots, return of previously paid VAT amounts, repayment of receivables and restructuring of payments on previously received loans.

In order to quickly resolve the identified issues, each enterprise in two regions was assigned the heads of the relevant industry departments and associations, commercial banks, khokimiyats of districts and cities of regions, with the identification of persons responsible for the implementation of targeted support measures and the accelerated withdrawal of production facilities to design capacity within the specified time frame.

The regional investment programs of the two regions were revised - the most promising investment projects from an economic point of view were selected, characterized by high rates of production, exports and the number of jobs created. The implementation of these projects will be accelerated in order to put them into operation by the end of this year.

The regional investment program of Andijan region includes 994 investment projects worth 21.3 trillion soums. After the optimization, the commissioning dates for 17 projects worth 167 billion soums were postponed from 2021 to 2020. At the same time, the implementation of 13 projects worth 75 billion soums was postponed to 2021.

In Namangan region, the program envisages the implementation of 1994 projects worth 25 trillion soums. As a result of the revision of the program for 2020, the implementation of 95 projects worth 1.8 trillion soums was postponed, while the commissioning dates for 153 projects worth 1.4 trillion soums were shifted to 2021.

Also, as part of the work of the Government Commission, a number of projects were developed aimed at import substitution of products that are widely demanded in local markets and used by domestic industrial enterprises.

Within the framework of the current localization program in Andijan region, it is planned to implement 226 projects, in addition to which the members of the Government Commission have developed 212 new promising projects. In Namangan region, 42 new projects have been formed and included in the localization program. In total, as a result of the implementation of these projects, an increase in the production of import-substituting products in the amount of US$230.5 million will be provided.

The activities of the Andijon-Pharm free economic zone and 11 operating small industrial zones in the Andijan region have been comprehensively studied. A package of 133 investment projects worth 101.8 billion soums has been formed, providing for the creation of about 2.3 thousand new jobs. During 2020-2021. 196.5 billion soums will be allocated to meet the needs of small industrial zones of the Andijan region in engineering communications. Also, proposals have been developed to create 10 new small industrial zones in the region.

201 projects worth 969.9 billion soums are being implemented in the existing small industrial zones of Namangan region, of which 189 projects worth 819.1 billion soums will be launched this year with the creation of 6.8 thousand new jobs. In this region, 23.1 billion soums will be allocated to provide 18 existing and new small industrial zones with connection to sewerage, gas, electricity and water supply networks.

A thorough work has been carried out to study the value chains existing in these regions and measures have been worked out for their development. To this end, priority areas of economic growth were identified in the Andijan region, in particular, the textile sector, silkworm breeding, pharmaceutical, food and leather and footwear industries, as well as proposals were developed to create 32 scientific and industrial clusters in these areas, in which completed production cycles.

In Namangan region, proposals were similarly developed for the creation of 18 similar clusters in the production of building materials, textile, pharmaceutical and leather and footwear industries.

The Uzstandard agency will take measures to create test laboratories and centers for training, retraining and advanced training of workers in the created industrial clusters in Andijan and Namangan regions.

The implementation of measures developed during the work of the Government Commission in Namangan region will increase the annual production of industrial products to 11.4 trillion soums with an increase of 823 billion soums or 107 percent in relation to the forecast indicators, create 37.8 thousand new jobs and provide inflow of revenues to the budget in the amount of 1.7 trillion soums, which will amount to 106.3 percent of the approved forecast.

In Andijan region, the volume of industrial production this year will be increased to 36.4 trillion soums, which will be 104.5 percent of the forecast. 29.3 thousand new jobs will be created, and the inflow of revenues to the budget will be 2.0 trillion soums (125 percent of the approved forecast).

Control over the quality and timely execution of the planned activities will be carried out by the General Prosecutor’s Office on an ongoing basis. On a monthly basis, the implementation of the developed programs will be considered at separate meetings of the Government Commission.

On 20 September, the members of the Commission carried out a separate work in the Ferghana region - an analysis was carried out of the implementation of the plan of practical measures to accelerate the development of industry, the organization of industrial clusters, as well as the localization of production, developed during the visit of the Commission to the region in August this year.

A detailed analysis of the implementation of 173 planned measures was carried out, which revealed a lag in solving some of the issues of entrepreneurs related to the repayment of accounts receivable, the allocation of credit resources, the need to return previously paid amounts of value added tax, connection to utilities and the issuance of the necessary permits.

In this regard, the responsible heads of the relevant ministries, departments and commercial banks responsible for solving these issues were instructed to come to the Ferghana region to work closely with entrepreneurs and take measures to fully solve existing problems.

As part of the implementation of the regional program in 2020, 697 projects worth 6.9 trillion soums are planned to be implemented in Ferghana region, which will create about 20.6 thousand new jobs. In this direction, a number of unresolved issues related to the allocation of loans were identified, in connection with which the heads of commercial banks were instructed to carefully study each individual case and take measures to provide financial assistance to the initiators of investment projects.

In order to develop industrial cooperation and create complete value chains in the region, it is planned to create 47 new high-tech industries, which will be combined into 26 industrial clusters. An analysis of the work carried out in this direction showed that for a number of clusters in the food, electrical, silk and furniture industries there are lags in the implementation of the planned measures. Responsible heads of sectoral departments, together with the leaders of local authorities and commercial banks, were instructed to ensure that issues are resolved within a specific time frame.

Similar issues were identified in the area of localization - during the work of the Commission in August, 42 additional import-substituting projects were developed for the amount of 132.6 billion soums, of which the implementation of 23 projects was scheduled by the end of 2020. At the same time, it should be noted that due to the commissioning of 62 projects included in the regional localization program, in the period from January to August 2020, import-substituting products worth 323.6 billion soums were produced, which exceeded the approved indicators by 1.5 times.

Issues in the field of increasing the efficiency of using the potential of free economic and small industrial zones of the Ferghana region were considered separately, most of which were associated with financing the development of engineering infrastructure and connecting FEZ and MPZ subjects to sewerage, gas, electricity and water supply networks.

In general, as a result of the full implementation of the measures outlined during the work of the Government Commission in the Ferghana region, the volume of industrial production by the end of this year will be brought to 2.4 trillion soums, which will be 103 percent of the forecast indicators, 16 thousand new workers will be created. places. At the same time, the volume of tax deductions from industrial enterprises by the end of this year will grow to 2.6 trillion soums, which will amount to 118 percent of the approved forecast.

The Government Commission will continue to regularly monitor the implementation of the approved measures in order to ensure maximum efficiency of the work carried out in the regions and provide effective support to entrepreneurs and industrial enterprises, initiators of investment projects and exporters in all regions of the Republic.