The Ministry of Economy has published a bill that radically changes trade in Uzbekistan; Development of commercial arbitration discussed in Tashkent; Tajik Aluminum Company and Uzbekistan to Establish Production of Special Equipment; A hub for Uzbek products will be built in the Orenburg region; The issue of public-private partnership in IT will be MUIC;
The Ministry of Economy has published a bill that radically changes trade in Uzbekistan
The document states that despite the previous measures, the current state of commodity markets and the level of development of domestic wholesale and exchange trade do not meet contemporary requirements.
The Ministry has found a way to solve these problems. The draft proposes to cancel the following legislations from January 1, 2019:
- requirements of licenses for wholesale trade and special taxation of wholesale enterprises;
- the current procedure for production and sale accounting of certain types of excisable goods (cars, vegetable oil, alcohol and tobacco products, etc.);
- requirements for issuing an authorization document for itinerant trade;
- sanctions for overdue accounts receivable arising in the relationship with counterparties from business entities;
- requirements for 15% prepayment in the domestic market for transactions with business entities;
- and others.
Development of commercial arbitration discussed in Tashkent
On 25 September 2018, Tashkent hosted international roundtable discussion on “Current issues of international commercial arbitration development in Uzbekistan”, organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Merritz International Law Firm. The event was attended by responsible officials of the Supreme Court, the Ministries of Justice, Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan, arbitrators of international commercial arbitration, academics, lawyers and experts in the field of commercial arbitration of France and Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of the mass media.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan has prepared a draft Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On international commercial arbitration” on the basis of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, adopted on June 21, 1985 (with amendments introduced on July 7, 2006) by the UN Commission on International Trade Law and approved by the UN General Assembly.
Participants of the roundtable discussed the comments of ministries and agencies on the draft law and expressed their opinions on supporting the draft law on international commercial arbitration and submitting it to the country’s parliament, as the amended draft law meets the international practice and experience of developed countries, as well as covers all stages of arbitration proceedings.
Tajik Aluminum Company and Uzbekistan to Establish Production of Special Equipment
The Uzbek “Krantas Group” and the Tajik Aluminum Company “Talco” are implementing a project to produce special equipment. The parties have already established a joint venture Talco-Krantas in Tajikistan. Here they will produce truck cranes, tractor trailers, semi-trailers and other types of special equipment.
The presentation of this promising project was presented during the visit to the Tajik Aluminum Company by the presidents of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, held on September 28.
The Talco plant, built in 1975, was transformed into the state unitary enterprise Tajik Aluminum Company in 2007. Today, “Talco” unites many enterprises in the mining and chemical-metallurgical industries.
A hub for Uzbek products will be built in the Orenburg region
In the Orenburg region, Russia plans to create a logistics hub – a wholesale distribution center for fruit and vegetable products from Uzbekistan. This was announced on September 25 at the meeting of the Governor of the Orenburg region with the delegation of Uzbekistan.
According to the Governor of the Orenburg region Yuri Berg, the region has the necessary infrastructure, a highway, a railway station with a dead-end branch, a gas pipeline and a high-voltage transmission line.
The volume of mutual trade between the Orenburg region and Uzbekistan in 2017 reached 210.2 million dollars. Only for the first half of this year, the volume of the mutual trade amounted to 191 million US dollars.
The issue of public-private partnership in IT will be MUIC
Mirzo Ulugbek Innovation Center (MUIC) will be implementing the public-private partnership in the field of information and communication technologies. In particular, the innovation center is ready to assist residents who have ready projects that can be applied in the state administration system.
The decision is due to the fact that IT companies, that have interesting and effective ideas, do not always have the opportunity to declare themselves and to attract the attention of state bodies to their own developments. MUIC will assume the function to provide a dialogue between the participants of the sphere of information and communication technologies represented by residents and authorities.
Residents interested in partnership with government agencies are required to submit their proposals to the MUIC Directorate by September 30 for further discussion with the representatives of higher authorities and authorized agencies.