Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in Uzbekistan
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$2 billion in 1995 to $6 billion in 2007. Note that the crisis had a larger negative 
impact on exports than imports, increasing the trade deficit between 2008 
and 2014. A key driver behind this trend was the downturn in international 
petroleum and gas prices. While accounting for about 40% of total exports 
in 2016, the share of exports fluctuated between 15% and 85% during 2008 
to 2017 due to the global movement in commodity prices. This suggests that 
Uzbekistan, like other economies with abundant natural resources that lack 
diversification of their exports, has been vulnerable to external trade shocks. 
Since Soviet times, Uzbekistan’s major trading partner, both in terms of export 
destinations and import origins, has been the Russian Federation. Following 
independence after 1991, the destination markets have been diversified away 
from the Russian Federation and more toward the PRC for imports, and PRC 
and Switzerland for exports (Figures 5.2 and 5.3). Evidence of a declining share 
of Russian exports and imports has also been documented for other Central 
Asian countries, in particular for Kazakhstan (ADB 2018). Nevertheless, the 
Russian Federation remains a key trade partner of Uzbekistan, accounting for 
15% of exports and 22% of imports in 2017. The steady increase in imports from 
the PRC matched the steady decline in imports from the Russian Federation, 
eventually exceeding the latter’s share beginning 2016. The first year the share 
of exports to the PRC exceeded the exports to the Russian Federation was in 
2013. Also, in 2012 exports (mostly gold) to Switzerland began to increase and 
in 2017, the country become the top export destination for Uzbek goods. 
Source: UN Comtrade. https://comtrade.un.org/db/default.aspx (accessed 12 December 2019). 
Figure 5.1: Total Imports and Exports, Uzbekistan, 1995–2018
$ billion (nominal)
Export
Import
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2012
2014
2013
2015
2016
2018
2017

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