KEY PRIORITIES of SMEs

DEVELOPMENT IN UZBEKISTAN
The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank
Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of
the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with
ADB official terms.

Dilshod Abduazizov
Head of Department, Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Uzbekistan

General information about Uzbekistan

Area: 447,400 sq kilometres;
Population: 31,9 mln.
Uzbekistan: 56th largest
country in the world by area and
the 42nd by population;
Uzbekistan is the 5th largest
country by area and the 3rd
largest by population in the CIS
region.
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Overview about SMEs

Business type

Number of SMEs 226 thousand

Individual entrepreneurs
Micro firms
Small enterprises

Type of export products

Population employed in SMEs 77,9%

Electro-technical products

Automobile
Textile

Share of SMEs in export 26,9%

Chemicals
Construction materials
Agricultural products
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Overview about SMEs

Dynamics of SMEs share in GDP (% )
52.5

56.5

38.2
31.0

0,1
1990

2000

2005

2010

2015

Main directions of Government support

in development of SMEs

creating the most favorable business environment, further improvement of

legislation, reduction of government administrative functions and licensing
procedures;

scale reduction of government intervention and regulatory authorities in financial

and economic activity of private sector;

creating maximum favorable conditions, tax exemptions and preferences,

improving reporting systems;

increase lending to small businesses and private entrepreneurship;

enlarging participation of small and private businesses in foreign trade;

development of information support system and advisory services to small

businesses, as well as in matters of training.
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Reforms on improvement of business environment

and liberalization of entrepreneurship
Presidential Decree from May 15, 2015 No.4725
"On measures to ensure the protection of private
property, small business and private
entrepreneurship, the removal of obstacles for their
accelerated development

from January 1, 2015 upon conduct of public services

SMEs are not required documents by organizations that
are possessed in other government bodies;
carrying out all inspections of micro firms, small
enterprises and farms activities is performed in the
planned procedure not more than once in four years,
only according to the decision of Republican council;
terms of carrying out the scheduled inspections not related
to financial and economic activities, constitutes no more
than 10 calendar days;
strengthening the responsibility of officers of government,
law enforcement and controlling organs for unlawful
interference into the entrepreneurship activities.

Dynamics of tax burden

on SMEs in 1993-2015
(in % to GDP)

50%

45.0%

45%
37.1%

40%

30,2%

35%
30%

21.9%

25%
20%
15%

16.1%
1993

2000

2005

2011

2015

Reforms on improvement of business environment

and liberalization of entrepreneurship
Presidential Decree from April 7, 2014 No.4609
On additional measures for further enhancement
of investment climate and business environment in
the Republic of Uzbekistan
From July 1, 2014:
SMEs utmost annual average number of employees
in labor-intensive industries were increased
by 2 times against the current (or up to 200 people):
construction materials industry;
light industry including leather and footwear industry;
food processing industry.
it is prohibited to apply to businesses measure of
responsibility for the violation of legal and other acts
of bodies of state and economic management,
municipal authorities, regulating issues of relations
with business entities, not published on their official
websites.

The number of registered SMEs

per 1,000 employed population

Presidential Decree from October 5, 2016 No.4848

On additional measures to ensure accelerated development of entrepreneurial activity,
full protection of private property and effective improvement of business climate
According to the Decree providing greater freedom of small business and private entrepreneurship,
radical reduction of interference in their activities with a concentration of efforts on early warning,
prevention and improving the effectiveness of crime prevention is determined as a top priority and primary
task of government agencies.
From January 1, 2017:
all kinds of unscheduled inspections of business entities are canceled, other than inspections related
to liquidation of the legal entity, as well as carried out only by a decision of the National Council on the
basis of appeals of individuals and legal entities on the facts of violations of the law;
all kinds of counter inspections of business entities are canceled, including criminal matters;
in respect of businesses does not apply a criminal penalty of deprivation of the right to carry out
business activities.
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Presidential Decree from October 5, 2016 No.4848

Program providing implementation of 42 concrete measures in five priority areas of most
accelerated development of business, protection of private property and the effective
improvement of the business climate was approved by the Decree

I. Legal regulation of business.

II. Reduction of businesses inspections and prevent undue interference in their activities.
III. Liberalization of responsibility of businesses.
IV. Improvement of financial, taxation and customs system.
V. Strengthening legal protection of entrepreneurs, improving business environment and
increasing Uzbekistans international rating.

Central geographical location

to the largest markets
Free Trade Agreement with 11 CIS countries including Georgia

Moscow
Minsk
Berlin
Kiev
Astana
Brussels

London
Paris
Washington

Bishkek
Ashgabad
Ankara
Jerusalem Tehran
Amman
Cairo Riyadh

Most Favourable Nation Treatment: with

51 countries, including US, EU countries,
Japan, China, India, Republic of Korea and
others

Tokyo

Beijing

Seoul

Shanghai
Bangkok
Singapore
Manila
Jakarta
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Free Economic Zones of Uzbekistan

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Free Economic Zones: Tax preferences

FEZ residents are exempted from all types of taxes:

Period of privileges and incentives:

If amount of FDI is:
0,3 to 3 million USD 3 years;
3 to 5 million USD 5 years;
5 to 10 million USD 7 years;
more than 10 million USD 10 years
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Free Economic Zones: Current projects

59 operating projects
Started production of such goods as:
Automobile components and wires
LED lams, High-voltage cables
ADSL modems, Heating boilers
Mobile phones, Set-up boxes (TV tuners)
Construction materials, Cosmetic products
Polyethylene pipes and etc.
These projects have been realized in cooperation with Italy,
UAE, India, Korea, China, Singapore, Bulgaria and so on.

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Rank of Uzbekistan in Doing Business

Indicators

DB-2012

DB-2017

+/-

Protecting minority investors

136

70

66

Enforcing contracts

60

38

22

Starting a business

96

25

71

Resolving insolvency

117

77

40

Getting credit

158

44

114

Getting electricity

172

83

89

Overall ranking

166

87

79

Uzbekistan is in Top-10 economies showing the most notable improvement in

performance on the Doing Business indicators in 2014/15.
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Thank you !