Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 15 November, a video conference was held under the chairmanship of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on ensuring employment and reducing poverty.

Today, all efforts in the economic policy of the state are aimed at creating sources of income for the population, reducing poverty. This is a large-scale task that requires comprehensive measures to invest in economic and social infrastructure, including improving energy supply and developing education.

At the pre-election meetings of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, regional programs were identified, taking into account the needs and demands of the population on the ground. In 2022, it is planned to allocate 75 trillion soums for their implementation. Now the task is to cover all mahallas with these programs.

The meeting discussed the forthcoming work in this direction.

In particular, next year it is planned to allocate 13 trillion soums to programs to support family entrepreneurship, vocational training for the unemployed and youth, and the implementation of projects in the service sector.

- Building a new Uzbekistan means working in a new way. First of all, the khokims must change. If all the efforts made, the allocated funds do not affect the life of the makhalla, then there will be no result. When using these funds, the main criteria should be job creation and poverty reduction, the head of state said.

Agriculture is one of the most important sectors for job creation. Next year, it is planned to provide the population with 80 thousand hectares of land freed up due to the reduction of cotton and grain areas. It is planned to allocate 2 trillion soums to the fruit and vegetable clusters, US$100 million for the implementation of projects in the fruit and vegetable industry, and the same amount for the projects of the household plots. Banks will provide soft loans at a rate of 7 percent for farming on household plots of the population.

Next year, within the framework of the state investment program, it is planned to implement about 1.7 thousand projects worth more than 18 trillion soums, and within the framework of sectoral and regional investment programs - 9 thousand projects worth US$22 billion. As a result, it is planned to create 135 thousand and 305 thousand jobs, respectively.

From now on, the President stressed, investment programs should be formed not in the ministry, but by the assistants of the khokims on the principle of "mahallabay".

Next year, it is planned to implement 109 projects with the attraction of US$2.2 billion from international financial institutions. As a result, 28 thousand people will be employed.

The head of state stressed the importance of linking funds raised from international financial organizations to mahallas.

The meeting also considered measures for the effective organization of the activities of khokim assistants.