World Bank Document

for Uzbekistan to achieve upper middle-income status by 2030. Against this background, the ten 

priorities identified in the SCD have been grouped into three Focus Areas: (a) private sector growth, 

(b) agricultural competitiveness and cotton sector modernization, and (c) public service delivery. 

First, regarding private sector growth, a significantly improved investment climate and business 

environment could create the conditions for financial and real sector businesses to generate the jobs 

needed to employ Uzbekistan’s growing labor force. Second,  agriculture merits special focus 

because it remains the largest source of employment, especially of the poor and women, it offers 

large opportunities for productivity improvements, and it embodies many of Uzbekistan’s most 

pressing environmental sustainability issues. Gradually, but substantially, eliminating state 

production quotas in agriculture and modernizing the sector are also key to reallocating land to more 

productive uses, eliminating risks of forced labor in the cotton sector, and sustainable natural 

resource management. Third, significantly improved public service delivery will be essential to 

modernizing infrastructure and reducing spatial inequity in service delivery and, in so doing, build 

the human capital and provide the infrastructure services needed for growth and job creation. 

Specific objectives are set out in each Focus area that all link directly to the ultimate objective of job 

creation. The WBG has developed a  knowledge base in a number of these areas, along with 

implementation experience in each Focus Area, and an ongoing portfolio of projects and analytics 

that will gradually produce results  in FY16-17 (Table 2 below), and an indicative pipeline of planned 

new lending and analytical activities for FY18-20 (Annexes F and G).