TASHKENT (TCA) — A modern high-tech production complex is to be created in Uzbekistan’s Navoi region in the coming years to produce gold and silver dimensional ingots, the Jahon information agency reports.
The new facility will emerge on the basis of Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine. It will produce ingots weighing from 5 to 1,000 grams.
The Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company will be able to sell the remnants of jewelry of its own production in the domestic market for the national currency with the targeted direction of incoming funds from their implementation to finance the project. Also, the procedure for exporting jewelry from the country will be substantially simplified. Today, foreigners can export from Uzbekistan gold items intended only for personal use and in limited quantities.
This project will allow for developing one of the main world trends – shopping tourism. Representatives of many countries have a tradition – to buy gold items during travel. For example, tourists from China and India are very interested in traveling to those countries where they can buy gold, and that is a fairly large tourist flow. Uzbekistan, favorably located at the crossroads of tourist routes, can become a serious player in this market.
In parallel, the jewelry industry, still in its infancy, will experience new development trend. By 2020, Uzbekistan intends to increase the annual output of jewelry products to more than $40 million. In three years, it is planned to increase the output of silver products by 6.2 times – from $112 thousand in 2018 to $760.5 thousand in 2020, and from gold – 2.4 times, from $16.4 million to $39.6 million.
A special emphasis will be placed on promoting products abroad. In 2020, it is planned to export jewelry for almost $14 million.
The main volumes will be produced on two flagships, which will be put into operation in 2018-2019. These are jewelry factories on the basis of the enterprise Phonon and 1-Zargarlik korkhonasi. For the development of the first enterprise, it is projected to partner with the renowned South Korean company Jemco, while the local bank Asaka will help with the second one.
