00:00In recent years, foreign investment in Uzbekistan has multiplied largely due to extensive government
00:08reforms initiated in 2017.
00:11The third Tashkent International Investment Forum highlighted the appetite for investing
00:16in the country.
00:20Participants from over 90 countries discussed business opportunities, engaged in sessions
00:25and held B2B meetings.
00:26Contracts worth $26.6 billion were signed.
00:30Aquapower, having already invested in 15 projects in Uzbekistan, inked a $4.85 billion PPA agreement
00:37for Central Asia's largest wind farm.
00:39This is one of the countries that has embraced decarbonization with the most ambitious and
00:46faster approach that we see in the world.
00:49As an investor, you will never be able to be faster than what the country wants to
00:54do.
00:55And if Uzbekistan today is the second biggest country in our portfolio of 15 countries around
01:01the world, that means that Uzbekistan has embraced this very fast and very ambitiously.
01:19Since 2017, there has been a liberalization of market access in Uzbekistan with the state
01:41actively pursuing new reforms and aiming for accession to the WTO.
01:47The geographics of direct foreign investments of Uzbekistan is, I would say, very diverse.
01:52It covers, I would say, almost the whole map from the United States up to Japan.
01:56When it comes to EU countries, we are, of course, very much interested in attracting
02:01more knowledge-based investments from Europe, investments in the high-tech infrastructure,
02:07in the renewable energies.
02:09European companies are also showing interest in Uzbekistan.
02:13What interested us is the capacity of the country to open the doors to provide investment.
02:19There is a very important energy transition to lead in the country, so our focus will
02:22be more on hydro projects.
02:24We have huge competencies and capabilities and we want to expand in hydro projects.
02:29The World Bank supports the government of Uzbekistan and its economic transformation.
02:34It is a pivotal country in the important region of Central Asia and it has a great growth
02:39potential.
02:40It has a stable government that is committed to reform and it is continuing to liberalize
02:46the investment climate.
02:47Next frontier is going to be tackling state-owned enterprise sector, liberalizing it and privatizing
02:53it and this will create tremendous opportunities for investors.
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