Uzbekistan new indd

In Thousand Soums
In USD 
Province/Region
Remittances per Hh Remittances per Hh 
Member
Remittances per Hh Remittances per Hh 
Member
Syrdariya
1676,771
162,0208
798,46
77,15
Samarkand
1616,367
190,2294
769,70
90,59
Ferghana
1563,831
262,7748
744,68
125,13
Khorezm
1295,047
200,6184
616,69
95,53
Surhandarya
1238,288
202,3423
589,66
96,35
Navoi
1041,818
124,0909
496,10
59,09
Andijan
929,015
136,647
442,39
65,07
Kashkadarya
855,6858
122,6245
407,47
58,39
Namangan
733,7933
121,7644
349,43
57,98
Tashkent city
695,145
99,306
331,02
47,29
Bukhara
638,263
105,849
303,93
50,40
Jizzakh
460,600
71,133
219,33
33,87
Karakalpakstan
207,449
36,487
98,79
17,37
Tashkent region
76,56566
14,34343
36,46
6,83
Source: GIZ 2013 Survey
Figure 2. Subjective Assessment of Current Financial Situation of Households
 
 
Cтр. 96 Figure 2.  
Can pay for food, but not new clothes and utilities,   22%
Cannot cover basic food expenses,  4%
Do not know/refuse to answer, 1%
Can get a new car or an apartment, 1%
Can pay for everything except a new apartment or car, 4%
Can pay for all above and certain appliences, 15%
Can pay for basic necessities, but not for appliances,  53%
Cтр. 96 Figure 2.  
Can pay for food, but not new clothes and utilities,   22%
Cannot cover basic food expenses,  4%
Do not know/refuse to answer, 1%
Can get a new car or an apartment, 1%
Can pay for everything except a new apartment or car, 4%
Can pay for all above and certain appliences, 15%
Can pay for basic necessities, but not for appliances,  53%
 
Traditional 
rites 
19% 
Education 
10% 
Food 
25% 
Housing 
21% 
Clothing 
14% 
 
 
 
 
Source: GIZ 2013 Survey
8 “Uzbekistan,” United Nations Development Program, 2014, http://www.undp.org/content/uzbekistan/en/home/countryinfo.html.

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Labor Migrant Households in Uzbekistan: Remittances as a Challenge or Blessing
67
wedding in Uzbekistan (about $10,000) and applying 
simple math, we can conclude that an average labor 
migrant should work six years to pay for a wedding 
of a member of his household. Two family members 
working abroad can arrange to fund a wedding in 
three years. However, as experience shows, house-
holds at the threshold of a wedding change their 
spending patterns (spending less on housing, cloth-
ing, and even food) and borrow the missing amount 
from their extended families, neighbors, and friends. 
Weddings are thus very costly acts for a household, 
accelerate the debt process, and seem unproduc-
tive from the perspective of a market economy. The 
following table intends to describe the above-men-
tioned claim in a comparative perspective.
Compared to other Asian countries, Uzbekistan 
is doing relatively well. The average wedding costs in 
Uzbekistan are higher than in Tajikistan and lower 
than in Kyrgyzstan—two other remittance- depen-
dent countries in Central Asia. However, the time 
required to save up money for a wedding ceremo-
ny is lower in Uzbekistan than in Kyrgyzstan and 
Tajikistan. The difference is not as striking as com-
pared to other remittance-dependent countries in 
Asia such as Bangladesh and Nepal: it takes 14.2 and 
23 years to save up money for a wedding ceremony 
in Bangladesh and Nepal, respectively, and only 2.26 
years in Uzbekistan.
However, the spending magnitude on traditional 
ceremonies in the developing countries is more viv-
id if compared to that of the developed world. While 
their average salaries are times higher than salaries in 
the developing world, the British on average spend 
around GBP 21,000 (or $33 800) (Guardian, 2010), 
and their American counterparts spend around 
$27,000 (Reuters, 2012). According to Mir24 (2012), 
around $1 billion is spend in Kyrgyzstan on wed-
dings and traditional ceremonies yearly (the same 
figure for the United States would equal $72 billion).