Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in Uzbekistan
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their investment activities in Uzbekistan (World Bank 2013). Thus, creating a 
favorable investment climate and competitive environment in the domestic 
market, and expanding the industrial and export potential of local producers 
would be critical to attracting greater FDI and creating new jobs in the 
economy. Evidence from literature suggests that trade and FDI liberalization 
is associated with increases in productivity and output, but perhaps more 
importantly to politicians, is the association with new job opportunities in 
the economy. For example, the employment attributable to both direct and 
indirect FDI (productivity spillovers) in the United States accounted for
12 million jobs or 8.5% of the labor force in 2013 (Richards and Schaefer 2016). 
To provide a sense of the level of business dynamics and entrepreneurship in 
Uzbekistan—the World Bank Doing Business report ranked Uzbekistan 69th 
among 190 countries in 2020. The ranking is based on assessing 11 indicators, 
such as regulation for starting a new business, registering properties, trading 
across borders, and labor market adjustments. Figure 5.11 shows these 
indicators based on 2020 estimates. Although Uzbekistan ranks relatively 
well in starting a new business (8th out of 190 countries), the country faces 
large constraints in trading across borders (152nd), dealing with construction 
permits (132nd), and resolving insolvency (100th). 
CIS = Commonwealth of Independent States.
Source: UNCTAD. 2018. World Investment Report 2018: Investment and New Industrial Policies. New 
York: United Nations.
Figure 5.10: Foreign Direct Investment Flows into Selected Economies, 
2005–2017 
($ billion)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2005–2007
2014
2015
2016
2017
Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan
Kazakhstan
Russian Federation
CIS

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