Within the framework of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group, at the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Jamshid Kuchkarov, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction of the Republic of Uzbekistan held an online meeting with representatives of the World Bank, headed by Ms. Anna Bjerde, Regional Vice President for Europe and Central Asia.

During the meeting, the parties discussed priority areas for supporting reforms in the field of strengthening social protection of vulnerable groups of the population and improving the quality of education, developing entrepreneurship in the regions, improving the agricultural sector by attracting innovative approaches, modernizing the heat supply system, rational distribution of energy resources and improving land relations.

Ms. Anna Bjerde noted that “Uzbekistan stands out as a country that is implementing an effective reform program. Regarding poverty reduction, the state has done a very high-quality and excellent work on the formation of data for assessing the level of poverty in the country and the use of various effective tools.”

The Uzbek side noted that “the republic is now actively working on vaccination of the population, including the support of UNICEF, in addition, contacts are being maintained on a bilateral basis with China and Russia.”

The parties also discussed the preparation of a new Country Partnership Strategy, identified priority areas requiring reform in the medium term.

The representatives of the bank informed that “the current economic situation is being 'diagnosed' in order to determine the sectors for which the World Bank will develop recommendations to ensure stable economic growth”.

In addition, the parties also discussed promising projects proposed by the Bank for implementation in 2020-2021 in the areas of entrepreneurship development among youth and women, continuation of the program for the development of entrepreneurship in the rural region of the Fergana Valley and improvement of human capital development.

Following the meeting, the parties expressed their readiness to further strengthen the partnership, and provide the World Bank with comprehensive support for reforms in Uzbekistan.

Source: Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan