On February 6, a meeting dedicated to the most important tasks of increasing exports in industries and regions was held under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The meeting was attended by the Prime Minister and his deputies, heads of ministries and agencies, as well as the leadership of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, the city of Tashkent and regions, representatives of large companies and ambassadors via videoconferencing.
Export is an important factor in stability of the economy. A sharp increase in exports is the only way to increase foreign exchange reserves.
As a result of measures taken in the country on facilitating and supporting export activities last year, the volume of exports amounted to 14 billion 258 million USD and increased by 13.6 percent.
Over the past two years, the export geography has expanded to 50 countries and has covered 140 countries. 120 new products have been exported. The share of finished products in the export structure amounted to 56 percent, regional industrial exports grew by almost 1.7 times.
However, the country’s export potential is still not fully used.
At the meeting, the President noted the need for diversifying the structure of exports, bringing the share of non-primary products to at least 60 percent. To this end, instructions were given on development of the national export strategy of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2019-2025.
This strategy will have to cover issues of transferring public services to exporters completely in electronic form, their financial support, entering the Doing Business rating among the 50 countries with the highest rates of foreign trade. Based on foreign experience, Uzbekistan Exporters Assembly will be organized to coordinate activities of exporters and provide them with comprehensive assistance.
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Global prices for basic commodities will remain low this year
Issues of eliminating shortcomings in increasing exports, enhancing this activity were discussed at the meeting, which was held on February 6 under the chairmanship of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
It was noted that in 2018, regional exports forecast was not fulfilled, especially indicators in Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, Samarkand, Jizzakh, Namangan regions and the city of Tashkent are unsatisfactory.
The fact that indicators of regional exports of fruits and vegetables were much lower than predicted, and corresponding plan was not implemented in any region was criticized.
Of course, exports also depend on global conjuncture. Foreign experts predict that global prices for basic commodities will remain low this year. In this regard, export forecast for 2019 is set at 30 percent more than 2018.
The Head of the state noted the need for implementing export forecast based on accurate calculations and proposed to introduce a new system in this sphere.
So, first of all, activities of the Republican export headquarters will be radically improved. Representatives of headquarters will be assigned to the Republic of Karakalpakstan and regions.
Deputies and advisors to the Prime Minister will be also personally responsible for implementation of exports forecast within their assigned ministries, agencies and business associations.
The Republican export headquarters, Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry for Investments and Foreign Trade will develop ten-day export schedules on industries and regions, take measures on ensuring unconditional execution of export contracts and signing additional agreements.
Permanent export headquarters to be organized in Uzbekistan
At the meeting, dedicated to the most important tasks of increasing export volumes in the sectors of the economy and regions, it was noted that permanent export headquarters will be organized in each region, district and city of Uzbekistan. A system covering the process of optimal placement of export-oriented crops, providing farms with qualitative seeds and seedlings, harvesting without loss, sorting, packaging, storage and processing, the delivery of products to foreign market will be formed under their leadership. At the same time, these headquarters will help resolve issues of internal and external logistics, certification, increase the export of small business and, if necessary, provide loans for replenishing working capital.
In accordance with these tasks, the regional, district and city headquarters will include representatives of territorial administrations and departments of republican agencies in economics, agriculture, transport, energy, customs, standardization, quarantine and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as commercial banks.
At the meeting it was noted that headquarters in the regions are obliged to constantly work with exporters and promptly solve their problems. The results of the implemented activities will be entered into the database and monitored online.
The ministers and heads of business associations will be responsible for the implementation of the export forecast in the supervised industries.
For example, Uztuqimachiliksanoat (Uzbekistan Textile Industry) Association will be responsible for the entire cycle from production of raw cotton in clusters to the export of all textile products produced in the country.
The need was noted for expanding production of goods with high added value with the use of modern technologies in industries.
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Tariff policy for carriage of passengers and goods on air transport will be optimized
The Ministry for Investments and Foreign Trade, having effectively established a national export support system, will facilitate the entry of enterprises into a foreign market, take measures for their financial support and risk insurance. At the meeting, which was chaired by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, it was noted that this system should work closely with export headquarters, the most important thing is that enterprises should feel effect of its activities.
All ministries and agencies will be directly involved in ensuring exports.
In particular, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Investments and Foreign Trade, together with ambassadors will identify demand and customers in foreign countries and report regularly to export headquarters.
The ambassadors assigned to the regions will assist khokimiyats in finding buyers in foreign markets and participation of domestic enterprises in foreign exhibitions.
Much attention will be paid to improvement of transport and logistics services.
As it is known, more than 20 international transport corridors and routes run through Uzbekistan, cooperation with 30 countries in international road freight has been established. However, logistics and road infrastructure, capacity of border customs points do not fully meet increasing transit requirements.
In this regard, responsible persons were instructed to further develop logistics centers and roadside infrastructure, improve technical condition and capacity of border customs points, active introduction of information technologies in registration process of vehicles and cargo.
The task was set for optimizing tariff policy for carriage of passengers and goods on air transport, assist private operators in organization of car fleet, achieve discounts for domestic exporters in transit countries.
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Uzbekistan to open green corridors with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Baltic countries
Standardization and certification of export goods does not meet the requirements, most of the standards do not meet world standards, which creates serious difficulties in exports. In this regard, Uzstandard Agency was instructed to eliminate existing shortcomings together with relevant ministries and agencies in certification and standardization.
At the meeting devoted to the most important tasks of increasing exports volume in the sectors of economy and regions, issues of effective organization of fruits and vegetables exports were also discussed. The necessity for optimal placement of crops in 67 districts specializing in horticulture, exporting at least 25 percent of grown products was noted.
It was recommended to create fruit and vegetable clusters in these districts, increase the number of modern processing enterprises.
It should be understood precisely: the exports cannot be increased without qualitative cultivation of export-oriented fruits and vegetables, their supply abroad during the year, said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Instructions were given on opening green corridors with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Baltic countries for creating facilities for exporters of fruit and vegetable products, access to China, South Korea, Japan, India, the United States and Europe markets with obtaining permits of quarantine services in a prescribed manner.
Another urgent task – expansion of services exports, especially, tourism development, was also considered at the meeting.
It was emphasized that macroeconomic stability mainly depends on regulation of imports, attention was paid to issues of increasing production of import-substituting products, improving tariff and non-tariff regulation policy.
Responsible managers’ reports were heard on the discussed issues at the meeting.
