Uzbekistan Diagnostic Assessing Progress and Challenges in

The dominance and preferential treatment of 
SOEs and incumbent foreign-owned companies
has hindered the entry of new firms as well as the 
development of existing ones
. 
Restricted currency 
convertibility until recently severely affected profit 
repatriation, and was a major obstacle to FDI. 
-
Volatile electricity supply, limited access to 
finance and little direct access to foreign markets negatively affected the 
competitiveness particularly of SMEs.
Foreign trade was largely monopolised by state-
owned companies until recently. Competition from the informal sector and increasingly 
also import competition are also significant challenges for small businesses. 
-
At around 29 per cent of GDP, credit to private sector / penetration is moderate 
compared to the regional peers
. Uzbekistan is ranked 55
th
out of 190 countries in 
Getting Credit according to the World Bank’s 2018 Doing Business report.
Capacity to create value-added
-
Labour productivity is comparable
to that of other major emerging market economies 
such as India. However, given outdated equipment and the many obstacles to doing 
business there remains much room for future productivity growth.
-
Levels of educational attainment are relatively high and 
the country has a high rate of 
patent registrations per population. The shift towards a more knowledge-based economy 
is nevertheless difficult yet because of skills mismatches and a business environment not 
conducive for commercialisation. 
Labour productivity 
Source: The Conference Board (2017). 
https://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/
.  
Ease of Doing Business Rank
Source: World Bank Doing Business Indicators 2018. 
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings.
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000