The Senate of Oliy Majlis jointly with the Capital Market Development Agency and UNDP has held support organized a consultation meeting with heads of representative offices of international financial institutions accredited in Uzbekistan. The meeting aimed to discuss coordination of interagency and international cooperation in developing the capital market and creating a healthy competitive environment.

Mr. Sodik Safoev, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan has noted in his opening remarks that the country carried out large-scale reforms aimed at ensuring further economic growth, improving competitiveness, and creating favorable conditions to attract investment to the country’s economy. At the same time, there are a number of systemic problems in development of the capital market and the effective management of state assets. These problems require development of strategic measures aimed at further improving government administration in these issues and ensuring successful integration of Uzbekistan into the international financial markets.

During the meeting, heads of the capital market development agency and the national assets management agency has presented speeches. Mr. Atabek Nazirov, Director of the Capital Market Development Agency, made a presentation on the current situation in the capital markets of Uzbekistan, current issues and legal barriers to the effective operating of the market, and also outlined his vision on prospects and necessary measures to revitalize capital markets. In turn, Mr. Zafar Zakhidov, First deputy director of the National Assets Management Agency, has mentioned on the systematic issues in the management of national assets, the targets for implementing corporate governance in enterprises with government participation, and measures taken to improve efficiency in privatization, dividend policy, and financial recovery.

Helena Fraser, UN Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan, has also mentioned about the role of capital markets as one of the mechanisms in financing Sustainable Development Goals implementation. She has expressed readiness on behalf of the United Nations Development to perform the role of a platform and support the coordination issues by ensuring effective interaction among government organizations and agencies, as well as financial institutions. Heads of missions have noted the need to strengthen coordination in order to avoid duplication and ensure systematic effective interaction and expressed their readiness to provide full support for the proposed initiatives.

At the conclusion of the meeting, it was decided to support the proposal of the Capital Market Development Agency to create a Multi-partner working group to promote development of capital market and national assets management. The formed group will consist of experts from responsible ministries, agencies, international organizations and business representatives, will assist the development of the Capital Market Development Strategy, which will include measures for comprehensive development of the country’s financial market.