Uzbekistan implements reforms in three areas measured by the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2019; The state will sell its share in the commodity exchange through an IPO or SPO; Government of Uzbekistan approves final financing structure of GTL project; Uzbekistan and Japan sign several documents; More than 200 lots are for online auction with starting price of 1 soum;
Uzbekistan implements reforms in three areas measured by the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2019
Uzbekistan undertook three business reforms in 2017-2018 and occupied the 76th position among 190 economies ranked in the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2019: Training for Reform report released today.
Uzbekistan has implemented 35 business reforms over the past 16 years. More than two-thirds of these reforms have been implemented in the last seven years. Most of these reforms were implemented in the areas of Starting a Business (an area where Uzbekistan performs best, with a global ranking of 12), Paying Taxes, Getting Credit and Registering Property.
Uzbekistan kept implementing reforms in 2017-2018, having improved in three out of the ten areas measured by Doing Business, Trading across Border, Protecting Minority Investors, and Paying Taxes. In the area of Protecting Minority Investors, Uzbekistan adopted legislation clarifying the ownership and control structures of listed companies.
The state will sell its share in the commodity exchange through an IPO or SPO
The news about the planned implementation of the state’s share in the capital of UZEX JSC is a significant event and one of the most important chances for opening the capital market of Uzbekistan for foreign portfolio investors.
It is worth noting that the company is one of the most attractive enterprises in the country due to the regular growth of turnover and income, significantly higher than average market quality corporate governance and a clear development strategy. Assumedly, SPO mechanism will be applied, since the initial placement does not allow to completely exclude the government share from the company’s capital, but only erodes it.
Investors hope there will not be a limit on the amount of investment during the SPO, as was done during the IPO of Quartz JSC – this measure does not allow placing shares on the best conditions. It is difficult to find 1-2 thousand Investors and the company share prices do not reach their potential since competition of investors is excluded, which leads to placement at the lowest price.
Government of Uzbekistan approves final financing structure of GTL project
A meeting of creditors on the GTL project in the oil and gas sector of Uzbekistan was held in Tashkent on 29-30 October 2018, Uzbekneftegaz said in a statement.
A delegation of creditors arrived in Tashkent to participate in the meeting, which included representatives of the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Korean Trade and Insurance Corporation, Gazprombank JSC, Roseximbank JSC and the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance.
Within the framework of the project “Production of synthetic liquid fuel based on purified methane of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex” (UzGTL), a plant will be built in Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan, which meets the most modern standards. Such high-tech industries based on GTL or gas-to-liquid technology are in the world only in South Africa, Malaysia and Qatar. The plant will annually produce more than 1.5 million tonnes of high-quality synthetic liquid fuel, which meets the EURO 5 standard.
Uzbekistan and Japan sign several documents
The 14th meeting of the Uzbek-Japanese and Japanese-Uzbek economic cooperation committees was held in Tokyo, organized by the State Committee on Investments of the Republic of Uzbekistan, with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Japan.
More than 180 representatives of the business circles of Japan, representing 52 leading companies of world renown, including: Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Sumitomo, Itochu, Toyota, Kawasaki, Sozhits Corporation, Mitsui, Nissan, Hitachi, and others, took part in the discussion of prospects for cooperation with Uzbekistan.
Japan’s co-chair Mikio Sasaki, Mitsubishi Corporation’s Senior Corporate Counselor, the leaders of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Japanese Foreign Trade Organization (JETRO) highly appreciated the reforms being carried out in the Republic of Uzbekistan and expressed confidence that the ongoing reforms in the country would open wide prospects for business development of Japanese companies.
More than 200 lots are for online auction with starting price of 1 soum
The State Committee on Competition said that to date more than 215 state-owned objects have been put up for auction and 19 of them have already been sold during the auction.
“Take advantage of the opportunity to purchase objects with a starting price of 1 soum with investment and social obligations, and organize your business activity in a short time,” the State Committee on Competition said.
Empty objects of state ownership are put up for auction in all regions of the country except Tashkent.