Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Private Sector Development and Access to Finance
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enterprises with partial state ownership often dominate the market, making it 
harder for new private sector entrants to boost competition.
The World Bank (2018) analyzed the growth pattern of Uzbekistan and noted 
“jobless growth”—growth not accompanied by satisfactory job creation. This 
is not a sustainable and resilient growth model that creates good quality jobs. 
Small businesses have led the expansion of private sector business. The role 
of small businesses and their entrepreneurs is critical to promote a more 
tangible shift from state-driven to private sector-led economic growth. Such 
a shift will promote job creation and accelerate economic diversification by 
competitive businesses. Among several factors affecting the development of 
small businesses, their access to affordable finance is essential to encourage 
their growth and entrepreneurships. 
This chapter reviews private sector and financial sector development, and 
especially focuses on small business development and financial inclusion. The 
chapter discusses government efforts to expand the private sector, and then 
draws the policy implications. 
4.1. Private Sector Development for
Economic Diversification
Private sector-led economic growth is one of the high priority areas of the 
national development strategy that Uzbekistan adopted in 2017. The business 
climate has been improving gradually, backed by a multitude of government 
measures to promote a liberalizing market-based economy. Uzbekistan’s 
Ease of Doing Business ranking has risen from 147th in 2007 to 69th in 2020, 
with improvements in “starting a business” from 70th to 8th and “getting 
credit” from 159th to 67th (World Bank various years). The introduction of 
an electronic application and payment system has facilitated trading across 
borders and improved the investment climate.
4.1.1. Enterprise landscape
This section focuses on three periods of private sector development
in Uzbekistan: 
(i) transformation during 2003–2008 (period I); 
(ii) after the global financial crisis, 2009–2013 (period II); and 

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