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On May 31, construction began on three large facilities in Uzbekistan’s Bukhara region. Officially launched by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the ambitious development comprises a gas chemical complex, a solar power plant, and an international airport. The gas chemical complex, to be built in the Karakul free economic zone, is the first plant in the country to employ methanol- to- olefins (MTO) technology. The project aims to attract some $5 billion in investments and advanced technologies from the USA, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Italy, and China. Once completed, the complex will process 1.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 430 thousand tons of naphtha per year and manufacture 1.1 million tons of polymer products, in high demand by both domestic and global markets. Two thousand new jobs will be created. The second facility, a 250-megawatt solar power plant to be built by Masdar from the United Arab Emirates, will be connected to the unified energy grid in December 2025. The third initiative is a new international airport which will be much welcomed by the ever-increasing volume of foreign tourists visiting Uzbekistan. In 2023 alone, some 1.4 million tourists flew into Bukhara. Built through private partnership at a cost of $226 million, the airport will have the capacity to process 1.2 thousand passengers per hour. Designed to meet international standards, the airport will both improve the quality of service and help attract more international airlines to Bukhara.
On 24 May, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon laid the foundation stone for the construction of the first solar panel production plant in the country’s Danghara Free Economic Zone. According to the Tajik president’s press service, the facility will be built in four phases with government support and investment by the Global Solar Wafer company of the Republic of Korea totalling $2 billion. Construction on 22 hectares of land in the western part of Danghara Free Economic Zone is scheduled to begin in July this year. The first phase, comprising a facility to manufacture solar panels with a capacity of 5 thousand megawatts, will be completed in March 2025. Once fully operational, the plant will provide 8,000 jobs, 95 percent will be allocated to Tajik citizens. The launch of the domestic production of solar panels will contribute to the realization of goals set by Tajikistan’s green economy development strategy which aims to generate at least 1000 megawatts of green energy by 2030.
In Kazakhstan, men are paid 27% higher salaries than women in similar positions, as reported in a study conducted by analysts, Finprom.kz. The authors state that in a regional context, the largest gap in 2023 was observed in the Atyrau region: 85.8% (in 2022 - 77.2%), followed by Mangistau and Ulytau: 72.8% and 52.4%, respectively. The smallest gap was noted in the Zhambyl Oblast: 1,8%. "Only in two out of 20 regions of the RK women on average received more than men. Thus, in Zhetysu region men earned 6.1% less, in Turkestan region 0.8% less than women. By way of comparison: in 2022, the average monthly nominal salary of women was higher than men in five of the 18 regions of the country at that time," the analysts stated. The analysts noted that the largest gap was observed in the field of information and communication: 36.5% in favor of men, followed by the spheres of art, entertainment and recreation (36.1%), construction (28.5%), healthcare and social services (24.1%), transportation and warehousing (23.4%). "Only women working as farmers and workers in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and fishing received more than men: the gap in favor of women was 7.6%," the analysts concluded.
Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace, is set to build a logistics center spanning 300,000 square meters in the Chui region of northern Kyrgyzstan to service cross-border e-commerce. The initiative was confirmed on 16 May in Kazan, Russia, in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation by Wildberries, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Economy and Commerce, and the Office of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic in the Chui region. The large-scale infrastructure project represents an important milestone in trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. As part of its positive impact on the Kyrgyz economy, the ministry says the initiative will help raise employment, and increase the volume of the economically active population through the development and emergence of new small and medium-sized enterprises, contractors, and buyers. Kyrgyzstan is currently home to two other Wildberries centres in Bishkek and Osh servicing some 130 order delivery points across the country. E-commerce is rapidly growing in Kyrgyzstan and to date, over 17,000 Kyrgyz sellers are registered on the Russian marketplace, compared to about 7,000 in 2022.
On 15 May, Laziz Kudratov, Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan, James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, and Tuncay Özilhan, Chairman of the Board of Anadolu Group attended the launch of a new Coca-Cola non-alcoholic beverage production plant in the Samarkand region. The company’s exclusive partner in Uzbekistan is Coca-Cola İçecek, part of the Turkish Anadolu Group. According to the Uzbek Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade, the new plant built at a cost of $80 million, will produce 280 million liters of beverages per year and create 200 jobs. The company has now invested $500 million and created over 1,500 new jobs in three plants in Tashkent and Urgench, and in the Namangan region. The combined annual production exceeds 900 million liters of beverages. Plans were also announced for the construction of a new production line in the city of Namangan, costing $50 million and scheduled to open next year. The heads of The Coca-Cola Company and Anadolu Group commended Uzbekistan’s investment climate which nurtures confidence amongst foreign investors to implement long-term projects. Following the launch, James Quincey and Tuncay Özilhan attended a meeting with Uzbekistan’s president Shavkat Mirziyoyev during which agreements were reached on the further expansion of the Coca-Cola Company’s investment program in Uzbekistan. In response to the company's readiness to increase their presence in Uzbekistan, the president advised that the state was set to adopt a separate roadmap for the accelerated implementation of this and other promising projects.
On May 13, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev conducted a government meeting on measures to develop digital technologies and expand IT training for young people across the country. In recent years, Uzbekistan’s IT sector has undergone rapid growth and compared to the 147 companies registered in 2017, the country now has close to 2,000. The number of specialist employees has likewise increased and today some 30,000 people work in high-paid company jobs and a further 70,000 young people are independently engaged in the sector. During the first quarter of this year alone, services in the sector increased by 20 percent, exports amounted to $200 million, and 5,000 new jobs were created. Home to 80 percent of the country’s IT specialists, Tashkent represents the hub of Uzbekistan’s IT services and exports. To redress the balance through the development of the IT sector further afield, the government now plans to create IT towns in fifteen of the country’s regions and in the city of Khanabad. Once established, the IT towns will enable some 10,000 young people per year to study, free of charge, information technologies, foreign languages, and other professions in high demand. Hailing the initiative, the president emphasized that the key aim of the IT towns is to “give young people wings and train them in professions fit for the modern world.”
