[{"bbox": [85, 153, 324, 186], "category": "Section-header", "text": "2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 219, 235, 247], "category": "Section-header", "text": "2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [95, 277, 1137, 621], "category": "Text", "text": "In December 2016, Mr Shavkat Mirziyoyev won the presidential elections with 88 percent of the vote. Immediately thereafter, Uzbekistan announced a widespread and structural transformation that would touch many aspects of society. Under the leadership of President Mirziyoyev, who was re-elected in October 2021 for the second term, these changes have been felt across the economic, social, and political domains, representing a sea-change away from the 27 years of previous tightly centralised governance. Political and legislative changes and policy interventions in governance have been taking place at a fast pace, evidencing the Government's commitments to dismantle previous political and socio-economical structures. This resulted in civil society, including independent media, enjoying greater freedom to discuss and influence the decisions of central and local governments with citizens' reduced fear of reprisal for criticising government actions. Several reforms have been initiated in the areas of separation of powers, including strengthening parliamentary oversight over executive, judicial reform, accountability of authorities to the people, and a high-level commitment to improve human rights, which contributed to a sharp increase in lawmaking activity."}, {"bbox": [95, 637, 1137, 895], "category": "Text", "text": "Parliamentary elections in December 2019 were a further step towards increasing democratic freedoms. Legal improvements brought Uzbekistan's 2019 elections 'closer to international standards' and incremental steps have been taken to enhance freedom of speech, promote human rights, and build citizen engagement and participation in national and regional legislative oversight processes. A woman chairs the Senate, while women's representation in Parliament achieved 44%. The positive changes had begun spurring even greater demand from civil society and the private sector for further reforms. Accountable, transparent, modern, and inclusive governance and rule of law institutions are preconditions for achieving Uzbekistan's development vision. Still, more investment is needed to increase their efficiency, scope and quality, including non-interoperability of platforms, poor data connectivity and low digital literacy, while addressing challenges exposed by COVID-19."}, {"bbox": [95, 911, 1137, 1141], "category": "Text", "text": "Uzbekistan's economy presents a dichotomous picture. On the one hand, a dominant, state-controlled, highly regulated, capital-intensive formal industrial and agriculture sector is present, based on extractive industries, as well as state oversight of cotton and wheat. On the other hand, there coexists a large informal sector of small, low-paid, family-based enterprises absorbing surplus labour. Nevertheless, the government ventured to radical transformations in the financial and economic sphere as well. Prior to the pandemic, the Uzbek economy was growing at an annual rate of 5.45 per cent, according to World Bank data. The Economist rated Uzbekistan as the country that improved most in 2019. Shortly thereafter, the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report placed Uzbekistan among the world's top 20 improved business climates."}, {"bbox": [95, 1157, 1137, 1384], "category": "Text", "text": "Despite the significant economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the country has recovered well. Strong industrial and services growth helped offset weaker increase in agricultural production. Increase in domestic income and investment, as well as anti-crisis spending and tax relief measures, also contributed to strong growth in 2021. According to the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, in January-September 2021, real GDP growth in Uzbekistan reached 6.9 per cent compared to growth of 1.7 per cent in 2020. The unemployment rate fell from 13.2 per cent in the first half of 2020 to 9.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2021. Public debt reached 38.5 per cent of GDP in the first half of the 2021, compared to 38.9 per cent at end-2020. The fiscal deficit increased to 5.4 per cent of GDP in the first half of 2021."}, {"bbox": [95, 1402, 1137, 1603], "category": "Text", "text": "However, regional inequalities are increasing.. Uzbekistan today faces a unique opportunity to build on growing development momentum, having embarked on ambitious reforms since early 2017. The Government's vision to transform Uzbekistan into an industrialised, upper-middle-income country by 2030 enjoys popular support. Looking ahead, the Government is committed to continuing reforms. Uzbekistan can reap a demographic dividend from its large young population (57 percent of whom are below 30 years of age) but has to offer them productive employment opportunities, encourage their economic initiative and innovation, and strengthen their future work capabilities and digital skills."}, {"bbox": [1037, 1680, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 25"}]