On April 5, Uzbekistan and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding that launched a strategic partnership to develop sustainable value chains in the field of critical raw materials.
The memorandum was visualized in Belgium by Laziz Kudratov, Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan, and Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission.
The EU notes that Uzbekistan has the second largest reserves of critical raw materials in Central Asia: copper, molybdenum and gold.
“This agreement marks a significant step towards securing diversified and sustainable supplies of critical raw materials for the transition to green and digital technologies, both in the European Union and in Uzbekistan,” the statement said.
Critical raw materials are minerals that are of great economic importance to the European Union. Such raw materials include 34 types of metals, minerals and other natural materials, 17 of which are strategically important: copper, lithium, aluminum, titanium, platinum, graphite, nickel, cobalt and others.
The strategic partnership, according to the memorandum, focuses on the following areas of cooperation:
Integration of sustainable value chains for critical raw materials, including through networking, pre-qualification of project proposals, joint project development, and promotion and facilitation of trade and investment links along the entire value chain;
Increasing the supply of critical raw materials and establishing a dialogue to increase transparency in investment, operations, and exports;
Attracting financing for projects implemented under the partnership, as well as developing clean energy supply, but not limited to;
Cooperation in the field of research and innovation, including the exchange of knowledge and technology related to sustainable exploration, production, processing and reuse of critical raw materials, etc.
“This agreement with natural resource-rich Uzbekistan will help the EU secure much-needed access to critical raw materials. For Uzbekistan, this will be a major boost to its ambitions to diversify its economy and sustainably develop its extractive industry,” said Valdis Dombrovskis.
The partnership is in line with the Global Gateway strategy, the EU’s key initiative to invest in sustainable projects around the world, taking into account the needs of partner countries and providing long-term benefits to them, through which the EU will mobilize up to €300 billion by 2027.
The next step after the signing of the memorandum will be the joint work of the European Union and Uzbekistan to create an operational roadmap with concrete actions.
In order to further promote fruit and vegetable products in Uzbekistan, a commission for the export of fruits, vegetables and food products will be established, headed by the Prime Minister.
For this purpose, Uzbek trading houses in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, the United States, and Kazakhstan will be transferred to the management of entrepreneurs.
It has been announced that new trading houses will be opened in major port cities such as Nagoya (Japan), Mersin (Turkey), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Qingdao (China), Klaipeda (Lithuania) and Doha (Qatar).
Thanks to an investment of $8 million, modern laboratories with international accreditation will be launched this year in Zangiat, Fergana, and Samarkand.
A reference laboratory will also be set up in Tashkent to ensure that private laboratories meet international standards. For these purposes, $12 million will be allocated from the World Bank. In the future, internationally recognized reagents will be exempt from customs duties and will not require a mandatory environmental certificate.
For export companies with a shortage of working capital, the Business Development Bank will provide UAH 1.5 trillion in soft loans of up to 50% of the contract amount with the farmer and the procurement warehouse. Loans will be issued at 18% per annum with a grace period of six months for a period of up to 1.5 years.
Suppliers of various fruits and vegetables will be exempt from all taxes regardless of turnover, and will now be able to work as self-employed individuals.
Thanks to the measures taken, fruit products worth USD 1 billion are expected to be exported this year. As part of regional programs, 528 projects worth $833 million will be launched.
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The international information and analytical platform EastFruit has published an article in which Uzbekistan may become one of the world’s 5 largest exporters of fresh onions by the end of the 2023/24 season.
The publication reports that the 2023/24 season was marked by bans on the export of onions from many countries. In particular, Egypt, which is usually one of the five largest exporters, introduced a ban on onion exports.
In Uzbekistan, as in many other countries in the region, records were set in terms of onion production areas and volumes. As a result, onion prices in Uzbekistan in January were 40% lower than at the time of harvest, which guaranteed losses for resellers.
Traders began to actively look for opportunities to export onions, as in January onions from Uzbekistan flooded the wholesale markets in Poland. In addition, the first export shipments of the new onion harvest of 300 thousand tons are planned for the end of March, which may be a new export record. This will allow Uzbekistan to overtake Poland, Afghanistan, Spain, Egypt and possibly the United States in terms of onion exports and enter the top 5 global exporters.
This was announced at a meeting on December 22 by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
More foreign TV series are being shown in prime time, the President of Uzbekistan noted. The head of state suggested supporting local artists and instructed to develop a concept for the production of national series.
The President noted that it is necessary to bring national series to the level of ideological, artistic and technical attractiveness to make them interesting, with special attention paid to creating modern conditions for local artists.
The Cinema Park free economic zone, which will be located in Tashkent region, will occupy 50 hectares. The khokims of Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent regions were instructed to launch projects to create their own free economic film zones.
The Head of State also proposed to consider the possibility of creating multi-part animated films about the exemplary life of great ancestors. These initiatives are aimed at supporting local artists and developing the national film industry in Uzbekistan.
For more details, please follow the link.
Uzbekistan’s incumbent president Shavkat Mirziyoyev won last Sunday’s early presidential election with 87.5% of the votes, the head of the Central Election Commission Zayniddin Nizamkhojaev said.
“According to preliminary data, 13 million 625,055 people or 87.5% of voters who took part in the voting cast their votes for Mirziyoyev,” the CEC head said at a briefing on Monday.
Under Article 35 of the law “On the Election of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan,” this entitles him to be considered the elected head of state.
More than 19.5 million voters registered for the presidential election in Uzbekistan. Some 15,671,405 voters took part in the elections. Between June 28 and July 5, more than 800,000 voters, including about 188,000 abroad, cast their ballots early.
Four candidates ran for president of Uzbekistan, including current head of state Shavkat Mirziyoyev, nominated by the Movement of Entrepreneurs and Business People – Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (UzLiDep). His candidacy was also supported by the Democratic Party Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival).
The People’s Democratic Party nominated its leader Ulugbek Inoyatov, the Ecological Party its chairman Abdushukur Khamzaev, and the Social Democratic Party Adolat (“Justice”) its first deputy chairman Robakhon Makhmudova.
As a result, according to preliminary data from the CEC, 649 thousand 116 voters (4.2%) voted for the candidate of the PDPU, 693 thousand 634 (4.43%) for the representative of “Adolat” and the candidate of the Ecological Party got 585 thousand 714 votes (3.74%).
According to the CEC, the final results of the elections, held on July 9, will be announced within ten days.
In the past presidential election, 80.12% of the vote for Mirziyoyev, the UzLiDep nominee, October 24, 2021, was cast.
The current presidential election was the first since the introduction of constitutional amendments to extend the president’s term of office from five to seven years. According to the constitutional law, the incumbent head of state, Mirziyoyev, who is in his second term, can run for office again.
Ukrainian online cab service Uklon has announced the entry into the market of Uzbekistan, will begin its work in the country from the capital city of Tashkent, the press service of Uklon said on Thursday.
The company told the agency that it plans to begin providing services in the new market as early as the end of June.
According to the release, Uklon will provide solutions for online booking of cars in Uzbekistan, including Uklon App – an application for passengers and Uklon Driver App – an application for drivers. The company will also provide delivery service.
It is specified that entering the market of Tashkent is an important step in the strategy of expansion of the Ukrainian IT-company.
Uklon – Ukrainian IT-product company, the developer of the eponymous online service call for cars. For 13 years of work Uklon has significantly expanded its geographical coverage in Ukraine and today works in 27 cities of the country and mobile application Uklon downloaded more than 12 million times.
As reported on May 3 this year Uklon announced the entry into the market of Azerbaijan.
