Tourism and investment issues were discussed

On April 9, a videoconference meeting was held under the chairmanship of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, dedicated to the issues of increasing the tourism potential of the regions and accelerating the implementation of projects involving foreign investment, the press service of the head of our state reports.

In recent years, the export of tourism services in our country has increased by 1.6 times, reaching 3 billion 500 million dollars. More than two thousand new entrepreneurs have started working in this area. Last year, the number of foreign tourists exceeded 10 million people for the first time.

Tourism and service infrastructure is rapidly developing in the regions. Over the past 8 years, 6 billion 500 million dollars have been invested in the industry, 130 thousand hotel beds have been created.

Today, there are 20 tourist villages in the country. A new international ski area is being created in the Parkent district on the top of “Oltin Bel”.

In fact, given the historical, cultural and natural wealth of our country, the number of tourists can be increased by another 2-3 times. However, some regions have shortcomings, such as inconvenient roads and transport links, lack of entertainment venues and interesting tourist programs.

In this regard, the meeting discussed measures to identify local opportunities, increase the number of tourist destinations and improve conditions for tourists.

For example, a significant part of the territory of the Saryasi district consists of mountains with great potential for winter tourism. Projects worth $200 million can be implemented there to build cable cars, hotels, and trade and service facilities. The Chartak district is also known for its beautiful nature and healing springs.

Responsible leaders were instructed to develop a program for the development of 36 such districts and cities based on ethno-, gastronomic, medical, extreme, cultural-historical, pilgrimage, winter and agrotourism.

Today, the tourism opportunities of Uzbekistan are actively promoted on such authoritative TV channels as the BBC and Euronews, as well as at more than 20 international exhibitions. Visa procedures are being simplified, modern aircraft are being purchased.

The meeting gave instructions on using these opportunities to attract tourists from promising markets and to establish direct flights.

Currently, the National Unified Platform for Tourism is being developed. It will include services for processing electronic visas and purchasing tickets. It is also planned to introduce a single tourist card providing access to all historical monuments.

In recent years, attention to domestic tourism has increased, the number of local tourists has reached 23 million people. However, many residents still do not travel to other regions.

In this regard, one weekend per month will be declared “days of traveling with family and team.” Winners of youth competitions will be awarded “Travel around Uzbekistan” vouchers.

Another area is working with cultural heritage sites. Over the past 4 years, 327 such complexes have been restored and preserved. Now another 485 objects require repair.

It was noted that the private sector can be actively involved in this work and business projects can be implemented. Tasks were set to improve the mechanism for leasing cultural heritage sites and digitalizing the accounting of income from them.

The duration of higher education in tourism has been reduced from 4 to 3 years, a dual system has been introduced. Now it is planned to organize internships and work for students abroad.

In general, it was noted that thanks to such measures, 15 million tourists can be attracted this year and the export of tourism services can be increased to 4 billion dollars.

The second issue on the agenda of the meeting was the analysis of investment projects implemented in cooperation with foreign countries.

In the first quarter of this year alone, during visits to the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Kuwait and France, agreements were reached on 178 projects for a total of 39 billion dollars. At the recent summit in Samarkand, the European Union announced the allocation of 12 billion euros to Central Asia.

Taking this into account, it is planned to attract 42 billion dollars in foreign investment in 2025. It is planned to implement 81 large projects, as well as more than 8 thousand medium and small projects, attract 2 billion dollars in grants from donor organizations and 6 billion dollars through banks.

The meeting analyzed in detail the possibilities of attracting investments by regions and partner countries.

For example, in the Altynsay district, which was previously unattractive to investors, where there is no railway or highways, three large projects worth 100 million dollars are being implemented. In the Kushrabat district, two new projects for the extraction and processing of granite with a total cost of 75 million dollars have been launched. It was emphasized that such opportunities exist in each region with an appropriate approach.

Last month, the “Uzbekistan Investors’ Day” was held in London, where agreements were reached to attract 2 billion 770 million dollars. The need to hold similar events in such large centers as New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai, Tokyo and Istanbul was noted.

It is planned that within the framework of a large-scale privatization program, state shares in 49 enterprises will be put on the international market, and 15 large state enterprises will issue Eurobonds. These measures are an excellent opportunity to attract foreign investment.

International investment forums will be held in Jizzakh in April and in Tashkent in June. The need to qualitatively prepare a package of projects for presentation to investors was noted.

Thanks to the transition to a new system of working with international financial institutions, 706 million dollars have been spent since the beginning of the year. Projects in the areas of thermal power engineering, regional power grids, agriculture, road and rail infrastructure have made significant progress.

At the same time, there are cases of untimely implementation or unjustified delays. It was indicated that henceforth, changes to finished projects should be considered exclusively by the government, and additional work should be carried out only after the completion of the main project, at the expense of the saved funds.

Currently, projects worth 20 billion dollars are being implemented in cooperation with international financial institutions in the energy, transport, agriculture, utilities and social spheres. Today, foreign partners widely support the reforms being carried out in the country.

For example, representatives of the World Bank, EBRD, Asian Development Bank, French Development Agency and Islamic Development Bank visited the regions and agreed to finance projects worth 1.5 billion dollars.

The Deputy Prime Minister was instructed to extend this experience to other regions and to additionally develop projects worth at least 3 billion dollars.

During the meeting, proposals were heard from ministers, khokims, ambassadors abroad and entrepreneurs in the tourism industry.