Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 25 January this year, a meeting was held at the Ministry of Economy and Finance with the Director of the Regional Bureau of the International Labor Organization for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Olga Kulaeva and Deputy Minister Jamshid Abruev.

The meeting was attended by the Director of the Department of Budget Policy in the Sphere of Social Protection of the Population and State Social Services of the Ministry Gulnora Murodova, the Director of the Department of International Financial Relations Adjiniyaz Kaipnazarov, the Director of the Department for the Development of International Cooperation and the Protocol Service Shukhrat Matkarimov, as well as the ILO National Coordinator in Uzbekistan Azizkhan Khankhojaev.

First, the parties discussed the current status of projects implemented jointly with the ILO and plans for the future. In particular, Olga Kulaeva, Director of the ILO Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, highly appreciated the ongoing reforms in our country in the field of social protection of the population and especially dwelled on the projects that are expected to be implemented in certain areas of cooperation in the field of social protection in within the framework of the Decent Work Program for 2022-2023 agreed by the ILO and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

During the meeting, the guests were informed about the implementation of the strategy of social protection of the population in our country, that phased measures for the introduction of the social insurance system are now clearly defined, the Social Insurance Fund has been created, and a new procedure for assigning and paying benefits for pregnancy and childbirth.

The parties stressed that at present, information on target indicators of the social protection strategy of the population of the Republic of Uzbekistan is regularly monitored and published on the website of the ministry, and in order to effectively fulfill this task in the future, modern information and communication on the ground exchanged ideas on creating the possibility of using technologies, digitalization of data analysis, with the help of technical and methodological support from the ILO, on the organization of the module "Observatory of social protection".

At the end of the meeting, the parties agreed to expand the scale of projects in the field of social protection of the population and further strengthen cooperation.