On May 26-28, Tashkent will host the first luxurious international jewellery, gems and equipment exhibition “Uzbek Jewellery Fair-2023”.

“Uzbek Jewellery Fair-2023” is the first and only specialized jewellery exhibition that takes place in Uzbekistan, focused on jewellery manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, agents, distributors and so on.

The purpose of the international exhibition is to establish new intra-industry and international mutually beneficial relations, get acquainted with technological innovations and achievements of foreign companies, master the most popular trends in jewelry design, improve the quality and quantity of products.

Within the framework of the exhibition, an awards ceremony will be held by the Jewellery Industry Association of Uzbekistan to the winners of the Uzbek Jewellery Awards for their contribution to shaping the future of the country's jewellery industry.

Afghanistan is expected to form a joint chamber of commerce with Iran in the new fiscal year that started on March 21, according to Khanjan Alokozai, a board member of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI). 

"The executive board of ACCI decided to establish a joint chamber of commerce. A commission has been appointed and it is working on the draft. It is almost completed. We proposed a temporary board," Alokozai said. 

"With the launch of this chamber, trade and economic activities will increase. The traders from your country [Afghanistan] and our traders [Iran] will be engaged in face-to-face cooperation and it will increase the level of cooperation," said Taqwa Minsion, university instructor in Iran.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Economy said the formation of the joint chamber of commerce will boost economic development.

"The formation of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce will benefit the growth of Afghanistan’s economy, and efforts will be made to improve the economic relations of Afghanistan with its neighbors," said Afghan Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari.

Also, Hossein Salimi, the chairman of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, said last June that a mirror chamber of commerce is due to open in Kabul soon and a branch of which will open in Herat simultaneously.

Afghanistan currently has joint chambers of commerce with Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

A delegation of 70 Afghan businesspersons, one of the biggest private sector delegations to Iran from the neighboring country, arrived in Tehran in February when they held B2B meetings with their Iranian counterparts.

Afghanistan with 1.58 million tons worth $792 million of exports from Iran in the first half of the Iranian calendar year (March 21-Sept. 22) was the fourth destination for Iranian commodities among neighboring countries following Iraq, the UAE and Turkey.

Afghanistan is expected to form a joint chamber of commerce with Iran in the new fiscal year that started on March 21, according to Khanjan Alokozai, a board member of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI). 

"The executive board of ACCI decided to establish a joint chamber of commerce. A commission has been appointed and it is working on the draft. It is almost completed. We proposed a temporary board," Alokozai said. 

"With the launch of this chamber, trade and economic activities will increase. The traders from your country [Afghanistan] and our traders [Iran] will be engaged in face-to-face cooperation and it will increase the level of cooperation," said Taqwa Minsion, university instructor in Iran.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Economy said the formation of the joint chamber of commerce will boost economic development.

"The formation of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce will benefit the growth of Afghanistan’s economy, and efforts will be made to improve the economic relations of Afghanistan with its neighbors," said Afghan Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari.

Also, Hossein Salimi, the chairman of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, said last June that a mirror chamber of commerce is due to open in Kabul soon and a branch of which will open in Herat simultaneously.

Afghanistan currently has joint chambers of commerce with Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

A delegation of 70 Afghan businesspersons, one of the biggest private sector delegations to Iran from the neighboring country, arrived in Tehran in February when they held B2B meetings with their Iranian counterparts.

Afghanistan with 1.58 million tons worth $792 million of exports from Iran in the first half of the Iranian calendar year (March 21-Sept. 22) was the fourth destination for Iranian commodities among neighboring countries following Iraq, the UAE and Turkey.

Bajgiran passenger terminal reopened on Monday after a three-year shutdown, according to a local official.

Ja’far Shahamat, the director of Road Maintenance and Transportation Department of Iran’s northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province, said that the reopening of the terminal took place after an agreement between Tehran and Ashgabat to provide services to the passengers at the joint borer as they did in the pre-pandemic era.

As a result of the agreement, Turkmenistan fully reopened its border to Iranian passengers.

Shortly after the global outbreak of the coronavirus three years ago, Ashgabat one-sidedly closed Bajgiran passenger terminal operating on its joint border with Iran.  

In 2022 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested almost US$ 900 million (€839 million) in 26 projects in Uzbekistan, making it the leading recipient of its funding in Central Asia for the third year running. Investments were made in sectors ranging from renewable energy to banking.

According to the bank, the EBRD, which became fully aligned with the Paris Agreement at the start of 2023, continued providing support for Uzbekistan’s green transition. The EBRD arranged two syndicated loans collectively worth US$ 520 million to help construct and put into operation two wind power plants with a total installed capacity of 1 GW in Bukhara region.

The Bank also organized a financing package of US$ 74 million for the development, construction and operation of a 500 MW greenfield wind power plant in Navoi region of Uzbekistan. This was the first project in Central Asia to use the Identiflight able to detect and monitor species at risk of collision and trigger an automatic curtailment of selected turbines.

Moreover, as Zsuzsanna Hargitai, EBRD Managing Director for Central Asia noted, EBRD together with the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan has developed low-carbon development pathway for the electricity sector of Uzbekistan, which aims to decarbonize the sector by 2050.

Outside the energy sector the EBRD extended long-term sovereign loans collectively worth up to US$ 120 million for the regional utility companies responsible for solid waste management in Khorezm and Karakalpakstan. The project will contribute to Uzbekistan’s decarbonization efforts in line with the Paris Agreement and support the national solid waste management strategy.

In 2022 the EBRD’s Advice for Small Business Programme in Uzbekistan launched almost 100 advisory projects thus increasing its outreach to domestic SMEs by 50 percent. Half of them were with women entrepreneurs and over 40 percent were in rural areas.

Meanwhile, the current loan portfolio of the EBRD projects in Uzbekistan is estimated at 2.2 billion euros. Bank’s loan portfolio is calculated for the implementation of 69 projects. The major part of the investment portfolio (72 percent or 1.6 billion euros) focuses on sustainable infrastructure, 19 percent (428 million euros) – on financial institutions, and 9 percent (199 million euros) – on industry, commerce, and agribusiness.

On November 16, 2022, during a meeting with the EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted with satisfaction that over the past six years, the interaction of Uzbekistan with this authoritative financial institution has reached an unprecedented level. The Bank is one of the main partners of Uzbekistan in the implementation of important socio-economic programs.

On 16-18 May 2023, Samarkand will host the EBRD’s 32nd Annual Meeting and Business Forum.

The Annual Meeting and Business Forum offer a dynamic program of events and panel discussions attracting prominent participants from around the world, ranging from leading government officials, financial and corporate executives to entrepreneurs, civil society, and international media.

Investing in Resilience will be the overall theme of the 2023 Business Forum. Discussions will concentrate on how to help the economies where the Bank invests withstand the current geopolitical adversity. The Business Forum will offer expert discussion panels and events focusing on the macroeconomic landscape, the role of the private sector and policymakers in boosting renewables and sustainable energy, interregional connectivity, economic inclusion, food security, digitalization, and other issues.

Analysis of business activity is monthly calculated by CERR on the basis of operational data.(monitoring in all regions of the republic, according to the data of theState Customs Committee, the State Tax Committee, the Central Bank and the UzEx).

The monitoring results showed that the volume of tax revenues of the republic in February this year increased by 10.9% compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, a significant increase in tax revenues was recorded in the Jizzakh (+39.5%), Tashkent (+25.7%), Navoi (+23.4%), Samarkand (+22.3%) and Andijan (+19.4%) regions, in the Republic of Karakalpakstan (+21.1%) and in Tashkent (+26.9%).

In terms of tax revenue sources, VAT increased by 15%, income tax by 24%, property tax by 31% and land tax by 18%, maintaining growth until the end of the month.

Receipts on customs payments for the analyzed period increased by 22.4% compared to the same period in 2022. The largest increase in customs receipts was observed in Surkhandarya (+47.3%), Samarkand (+39.0%), Tashkent (+25.9%), Fergana (+19.2) and Jizzakh (+16.0%) regions, in the Republic of Karakalpakstan (+67.4%) and Tashkent (+45.0%).

The increase in customs revenues is mainly due to an increase in import volumes by type of goods by almost 26% compared to the same period last year, including transport equipment and its components, technical equipment, electrical engineering and its components, as well as food.

According to the State Customs Committee, the volume of exports of goods from the beginning of this year to February 28 increased by 3.1% compared to the same period last year. Export growth was observed in Navoi (+129.0%), Andijan (+46.9%), Syrdarya (+43.9%), Khorezm (+38.0%) and Kashkadarya (+10.4%) regions, and in Tashkent (+3.5%).

The increase in Uzbekistan's exports is explained by the growing growth rates of exports of food products, industrial goods, chemicals and agri-food products.

The decrease in exports occurred in Ferghana (-24.2%), Bukhara (-20.3%), Tashkent (-16.2%), Jizzakh (-12.9%), Samarkand (-7.9%), Surkhandarya (-7.4%) and Namangan (-4.4) regions, in the Republic of Karakalpakstan (-14.9%).

The decrease in exports in the Bukhara region is due to the direction of cotton fiber to the domestic market and a reduction in exports of oil and petroleum products, in the Fergana, Jizzakh and Namangan regions – reduction in yarn exports, in the Tashkent region – reduction in exports of metals and products made from them, in the Samarkand region – reduction in exports of fruits and vegetables and yarn, in the Surkhandarya region – reduction in exports of yarn and food products, and in the Republic of Karakalpakstan – reduction in exports of plastics and products made of them and yarn.

The volume of loans issued by commercial banks in the period from January 1 to February 28 this year increased by 41.3% compared to the same period last year.

A significant increase in the issuance of loans was noted in Jizzakh (+122.6%), Syrdarya (+50.7%), Khorezm (+45.9%), Kashkadarya (+38.5%) regions, and in Tashkent (+74.9%).

The volume of transactions on the UzEx for the analyzed period increased by 20.1%. A significant increase in exchange activity is observed in Syrdarya (+102.0%), Kashkadarya (+72.4%), Samarkand (+55.1%) and Surkhandarya (+46.8%) regions, and in the Republic of Karakalpakstan (+51.4%) and Tashkent (+6.9%).

The growth in the volume of transactions in these regions is ensured by increasing the sale of goods such as cotton fiber, wheat flour, wheat, liquefied gas, mineral fertilizers, technical seeds, automobile gasoline, diesel fuel, construction and household materials, sugar, rolled ferrous and non-ferrous metals, polyethylene, etc.

During the analyzed period, 15,404new economic entities were created, the largest number of which were registered in Samarkand (1,391), Kashkadarya (1,346), Ferghana (1,340), Tashkent (1,167), Khorezm (1,059), regions and in Tashkent (3,012).

President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafei on Sunday proposed the launch of a joint committee of investment between Tehran and Tashkent.

Shafei made the remarks during a meeting in Tehran with Davron Vahabov, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan where they explored ways for increasing the level of cooperation and bilateral trade.  

He believed that this committee can conduct detailed studies on suitable fields for making investments in both Iran and Uzbekistan and provide the results to the businessmen and the private sectors of the two sides for further cooperation.

Referring to the establishment of an economic system in Uzbekistan which is largely based on free trade, the Iran Chamber of Commerce president said that Uzbekistan’s current volume of trade is as much as $50 billion which is a considerable amount.  

He also hailed the formation of Iran-Uzbekistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and called for the establishment of a mirror chamber of commerce in Uzbekistan.

One of the main obstacles on the way of expansion of economic relations between Iran and Uzbekistan is transportation problems, particularly rail transportation, Shafei said, regretting that some third countries are contributing to this problems.

He also referred to previous negotiations for establishing an arbitration center between the chambers of commerce of Iran and Uzbekistan and expressed hope that this center will be launched as soon as possible to help resolve the legal problems on the way of trade between the two countries.

Shafei said that a major Iranian trade delegation is scheduled to visit Uzbekistan after the end of the holy month of Ramadan (late April), voicing Tehran’s readiness to host delegations from Uzbekistan.  

Noting that Iran has many potentials for making joint investments in SMEs, he said that Uzbekistan has huge capacities in agriculture and Iran is advanced in processing industries which makes it possible for both nations to cooperate in these areas.

The Uzbek side said in the meantime that the volume of trade between Iran and Uzbekistan hit $500 million in 2022.

Noting that Tehran and Tashkent can mobilize all the potentials to multiply bilateral trade, Vahabov said he was sure that the volume of trade between the two countries can rise by 20 or 30 percent this year.

He also welcomed a proposal by Iran Chamber of Commerce president for the establishment of a mirror joint chamber of commerce in Tashkent.

He said that an arbitration center is currently active in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan, noting that the chambers of commerce on both sides can link the arbitration centers so as to deal with and resolve the possible disputes between the businesspeople from both countries.

 To access business events of ECO member countries, please refer to the link below:

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Uzbekistan's labor market in international assessments:
About positions in international ratings and indexes

International rankings and indexes assess the economic and political
freedom, well-being of life, human rights, education, health care system, etc. of
various countries. In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic
of Uzbekistan dated 02.06.2020, key performance indicators (KPIs) were defined
for priority international ratings and indices for the Republic of Uzbekistan, a
number of which, as well as 16 sub-indicators, are directly related to the labor
market. This article highlights sub-indicators related to the labor market that affect
the position in international indices, as well as measures that need to be
implemented in the labor market to improve the position of Uzbekistan in
international comparisons.
Global Innovation Index
The Global Innovation Index (GII), evaluated by the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) since 2007, covers the economies of 132 countries,
which account for 94.3% of the world's population. In this index, Uzbekistan
ranked 93rd in 2020, 86th in 2021, and 82nd in 2022. The index consists of 7
directions and 81 sub-indicators. Each country is rated on a 100-point scale. In this
index, 3 sub-indicators of the "Business Development" direction and 1 sub-
indicator of the "Institutional system" direction relate to the labor market, which
are evaluated as follows.
Employment in knowledge-intensive industries.
According to the methodology of the International Labor Organization, this
sub-indicator is formed by calculating the share of the number of people employed
in knowledge-intensive industries, which belong to three categories of professions:
managers, specialists, technical and auxiliary specialists, as part of the
economically active population. Therefore, the GII sub-indicator lacks data on
employment in knowledge-intensive industries in Uzbekistan. This is due to the
fact that the report was not conducted according to the ISCO-08 and ISCO-88
standards, which take into account the distribution of employment by position. In
order to determine the indicators of this sub-indicator, it is necessary to determine
the number of employees in knowledge-intensive industries based on the
interdepartmental software and hardware complex "Unified National Labor
System", as well as make changes to the questionnaire for determining the balance
of labor resources based on the recommendation of the International Labor
Organization. As an experiment, it is advisable to conduct an appropriate survey to

2
coordinate the quality of the collected data with the International Labor
Organization.
Firms that offer formal training.
This sub-indicator is measured by determining the percentage of firms
offering formal training and retraining courses for their permanent employees out
of the total number of firms in the country. Based on the World Bank
methodology, more than a thousand companies are selected in each country and
surveys are conducted. The questionnaire consists of 13 components and includes
67 sub-indicators.
The 2022 report indicates that firms offering formal training in Uzbekistan
account for 16.9% of the total number of firms, and the country ranks 88th in this
sub-indicator. These figures are based on the results of a survey conducted by the
World Bank in 2019 among 1,239 firms operating in various sectors of the Uzbek
economy. Firms that participated in the survey were divided into 3 groups,
depending on the number of employees. According to the survey results, 13% or
78 out of 603 small firms, 23.6% or 97 out of 415 medium-sized firms, 42.1% or
93 out of 221 large firms organized training, retraining courses, trainings and
seminars for their employees.
Firms offering formal training in Uzbekistanin 2019
from THEM:
Subindicator Share of the total
number of firms
Small firms
(5-19employees) Medium-sized
companies
(20-99 employees)
Large companies
(100 + employees)
Europe and
CentralAsia
In lower-middle-
income countries
Percentage of firms offering formal training 16,9 % 13% 23,6% 42,1% 32,7% 37,3%
Source: World Bank (enterprise survey)
https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data/exploreeconomies/2019/uzbekistan
Based on this, it can be concluded that the organization of training,
retraining courses, trainings and seminars for employees of small and medium-
sized enterprises in Uzbekistan is not sufficiently satisfactory. To improve
country's position on this indicator, it is possible to introduce a system of allocating
subsidies to employers from the state budget in order to encourage small and
medium-sized firms to train employees.
Working women with higher education.
This indicator is determined by calculating the proportion of women with
higher education in the total employed population. In the GII 2022, working
women with higher education account for 13.7% of the total number of employees,
and Uzbekistan ranks 56th in this sub-indicator. The reason for the relatively low
rate in country can be explained by the fact that the number of women with higher
education among the population is small, and many of them, married according to
traditional customs, mostly do not work and are engaged in household work.

Iran’s Consul General Hassan Nourian has said that bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran has reached $2 billion in the last 10 months, while the target was set at $5 billion.

“However, due to the absence of a banking channel, trade activities have faced difficulties,” he said during his visit to the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry, The News reported.

KATI President Faraz-ur-Rehman, Deputy Patron-in-Chief Zubair Chhaya, Senior Vice President Nighat Awan, former presidents Farukh Mazhar, Shaikh Fazal-e-Jalil, and First Consul of Iran Masoud Kian Bakhsh, among others, participated in the event.

Iranian consul general further said that the visa policy has been relaxed and six new border markets have been established to promote trade with Pakistan. 

“Progress is also being made in barter trade and in this regard, all the preparations are complete on Iran’s side, while on Pakistan's side, the Federal Board of Revenue is developing software that will make barter trade possible,” he added.

Nourian noted that there are friendly and brotherly relations between Pakistan and Iran, but unfortunately trade between the two countries has not developed as it should have. He said that all obstacles to the free trade agreement between the two countries have been removed, after which trade in 600 products would be possible between Iran and Pakistan.

He said that the trade delegation of Iran had a successful visit recently after which a memorandum of understanding was signed with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.

The Iranian CG said that under the agreement with Pakistan, the National Logistics Cell has been allowed to access the European market through Iran.