TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has approved a Comprehensive Development Program for Muynak District of Karakalpakstan Autonomous Region for 2017-2018, the Jahon information agency reported. During two years, the program plans to implement 72 projects in industry, services and agricultural processing in the district located in the area of the shrinking Aral Sea.
The program will establish a small industrial zone, Muynak, in the territory of the former Muynak fish cannery. Businesses initiating projects in the zone will be granted unprecedented tax breaks and preferences. They will be exempt from all types of taxes for almost a decade, from April 1, 2017 to January 1, 2027.
Entrepreneurs will be offered to rent idle state-owned facilities for up to ten years at ‘zero’ cost under the condition of creating new jobs. Twelve other state property objects will be offered for sale to potential investors also as zero redemption value under the same condition.
The program will pay special attention to tourism development in the area. The head of state has approved a program of measures on the establishment of an international tourist cluster in the Muynak district. In particular, it is planned to build a trade and tourist complex in Muynak city center, which will offer unique tourism products like quad biking on the bottom of the dried-up Aral Sea, mud treatment with unique minerals of the Aral Sea, and therapeutic baths in local highly saline lakes.
Muynak Seamark and an adjacent cafe with the sea bоttom view will become new attractions on the tourist map. Their construction will begin in the near future.
The ship cemetery, as a major symbol of the Aral Sea tragedy, will be reconstructed, and 11 remaining ships will be restored. Significant funds will be invested in the development of a separate artisans cluster.
