For example, in the 20th century, the United States, which has become one of the world’s major economies today, developed several strategies that were important in its development. One of them is the New Deal strategy of Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected to the US presidency four times, and another one is the National Sustainable Development Strategy elaborated 13 years ago by Germany, which is another developed country in the world. The German strategy was renewed in 2018 based on today’s world trends.
About six years ago, Uzbekistan entered a new era in its development history. The Action Strategy developed at the initiative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the authorship of our people, which is intended for the implementation of the five most important for Uzbekistan priorities of political, legal, economic and social reforms, served as the basis in this stage.
During the implementation of this strategy, special attention was paid to citizens’ participation and interest in reforms. As a result, the state and the society-building system were fundamentally reformed. In particular, the openness and transparency of the activities of state bodies, the accountability of officials to society and the people have been increased. Public control has been established with the participation of citizens in making the plans and ensuring their execution. A system of reporting on the works in progress has been also established.
Opportunities have been expanded for citizens to submit issues to state bodies. All opportunities have been created for this. In particular, virtual and public receptions of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which directly listen to the problems and suggestions of citizens, were established in each region. In 2017-2021, these reception centers received more than 6 million appeals and requests from citizens. 3 million of them were solved on time.
Also, the problems and proposals, opinions and comments of citizens were studied through the “mahalla – sector – People’s reception – mahalla” cooperation system as well as the mobile receptions which were introduced to solve the population’s problems.
At the same time, the authority to make final decisions in many ministries and sectors was transferred to subsystems. Cases related to requesting redundant documents were terminated. Local State Service Centres have been established, and today more than 250 types of state services are provided electronically through the my.gov.uz portal.
Well, to what extent do these reforms bring comfort to the population today? First of all, citizens have the opportunity to conduct their work with state agencies easily and quickly in their territory, saving time and money without bureaucratic obstacles, without going to regional and republican offices.
Let’s say that before a citizen had to travel 400 kilometers from a remote mahalla of Kungrat district of the Republic of Karakalpakstan to get a certificate, wandering from office to office and coming to the center of the district to finish his work, but now he/she uses all services from his/her home or mahalla. Of course, these processes serve to strengthen human dignity.
The sense of involvement of the citizens in the State administration and the implementation of the reforms leading to development is increasing. The reason for this is the introduction of effective mechanisms of communication with the people within the framework of the Action Strategy. Previously resolutions or legal documents or documents of important strategic importance at the state level, directly related to the life of our citizens used to cause certain objections only after their adoption.
Nowadays, as a result of further improvement of the mechanisms of open communication with people, the establishment of the practice of making important decisions taking into account public opinion, every document is passed after a preliminary wide public discussion. Now our citizens are directly participating in the procedure of public control not only in the process of adoption, but also in the process of ensuring its execution.
In particular, the system of public administration was improved, and the media was given freedom. The social and political activity of civil society institutions increased. State bodies are obliged to report quarterly on their activities through media representatives, and to post full information on their budget expenditures on their websites.
All the resolutions and decrees of hokims are regularly announced in the “E-qaror” electronic system (e-qaror.gov.uz) and now every citizen can observe them. This allows citizens to monitor the extent to which their interests are reflected in the decisions made by deputies, who represent the people in their district and hokims.
These reforms were introduced in higher bodies together with the lowest level. In particular, the powers of the Legislative Chamber in the formation of the Government have been expanded. A procedure was introduced of approving by the Legislative Chamber and confirming by the President of the nomination of deputy prime ministers, ministers and state committee chairpersons upon the submission of the Prime Minister, and the procedure for approval of the heads of regional, district and city state bodies by the Councils of People’s Deputies.
“Parliament hearings” and “Government hour” systems were introduced to find effective solutions to issues discovered as a result of on-site studies of deputies of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and raised in the appeals made by the voters. The powers of the chambers of the Oliy Majlis to solve important tasks related to internal and foreign policy have been expanded.
At the beginning of 2022, the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026 was adopted, which is aimed at consistent continuation of the reforms started and bringing the achieved results to a higher level. This strategy was developed within the framework of seven directions and one hundred goals, taking into account the discussions with our people, the geopolitical situation happening in the world, and the rich experience gathered within the framework of the Action Strategy.
In particular, several important goals and tasks aimed at consistent continuation of the reforms started to improve human dignity have been defined within the framework of the first direction of the development strategy - building a people-caring state.
In particular, this includes the consistent realization of the national program “A People-Caring State” ensuring further improvement of the mechanisms of open dialogue with the people, expanding the practice of making important decisions taking into account public opinion, creating a system of applying to all state agencies from mahalla, provision of state and social services directly in the mahalla, and the implementation of the idea “The state must serve the people”.
I think that implementation of these goals in our lives will serve as an important stage in the future in the process of timely achievement of all the goals set in the cohesion of the people and the state, as well as for taking Uzbekistan a place among the developed countries of the world.
Farrukh Abduhamidov,
Development Strategy Center
Department Head
