On February 14, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on priority tasks for the development of mechanical engineering.

As in all industries, transformational processes are actively carried out in the automotive industry. Over the past four years, vehicle production has increased by 1.8 times, and industry exports by 2.7 times. New enterprises have been created with the participation of foreign companies, the production of 2.6 thousand types of components has been launched.

UzAuto Motors, having received a “stable” credit rating from the international agencies Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's, for the first time placed Eurobonds for $300 million on the global financial market.

However, the industry is still unable to fully meet consumer demand.

In this regard, the Development Strategy for the next five years sets goals to increase production in the automotive industry by 1.4 times through further development of cooperation, its exports – by 2 times, as well as to increase the level of localization.

The work to be carried out this year to achieve these goals was discussed at the meeting.

The Head of the state noted that priority should be given to meeting the needs of the population. Instructions were given to reduce the amount of prepayment for a vehicle from the current 85 percent to 50 percent, to eliminate the queues that have arisen when buying cars by May 1. Each customer in the queue will receive a notification with a specific delivery date for the vehicle.

It was noted that to meet domestic demand, it is necessary to produce 160,000 vehicles in the first half of the year and 275,000 by the end of the year.

The government has been tasked with reducing the rates of customs duties on imported vehicles by 2 times to increase the supply on the market and expand the choice of consumers.

This year, it is planned to implement 23 projects to master the production of 600 types of components. As a result, the level of localization will increase from 48 to 56 percent. The production of two car models and modern engines will also be launched through an investment of $336 million.

The industry’s export plans were also considered at the meeting.

Noting that the forecasts do not correspond to existing opportunities, the President gave recommendations on entering new markets. In particular, it was noted that there is a potential to increase the volume of exports in 2022 to at least $500 million by expanding the sale of components through large retail chains.

The Head of the state noted the need for developing the machine-building industry using the industrial cluster method. This system along the chain “engineering – components – finished products – sales and service” will unite 8 machine-building enterprises, more than 300 component manufacturers, logistics, trade and service networks in the domestic and foreign markets, Turin Polytechnic University and Andijan Machine Building Institute.

In this regard, the government was instructed to develop a program for the National Machine Building Cluster.

As is known, the world is rapidly developing the production of electric vehicles. In 2021, the share of such cars in the auto market has doubled.

The President noted that to keep up in this sphere, it is necessary to act now. In this regard, the task was set to develop a strategy for the development of the electromobility industry, taking into account technical requirements and standards, and localization issues.

The state of affairs in agricultural engineering was also discussed at the meeting. In this direction, it is planned to create an appropriate cluster in Chirchik. For these purposes, 100 billion UZS were allocated from the budget. The relocation of equipment from the Tekhnolog and Agregat factories to Chirchik has begun. The importance of fully launching the cluster in 2023 was emphasized.

The possibility of doubling the volume of production of agricultural machinery, reducing its cost by 12 percent and increasing exports to $15 million this year was noted.

Responsible persons provided information on the issues discussed at the meeting.

Source: UzA