TASHKENT (TCA) — The President of Uzbekistan has approved the decision to create a free economic zone “Sport” in the Tashkent region. It will represent an industrial cluster with dozens of enterprises specializing in the production of sportswear and sports equipment, with the participation of the world’s leading manufacturers, the Jahon information agency reported.
The FEZ “Sport” will be created before June 30, 2018. It is planned to attract such well-known brands as Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Li Ning, Eleiko, Janssen-Fritsen, Gymnova, and others. Negotiations with foreign partners will be conducted by the State Committee for Investments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, as well as the National Project Management Agency and the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports.
To date, the sports goods industry in Uzbekistan is in its infancy. Basically, these products are produced by enterprises of the automobile industry. So, the joint Uzbek-Korean enterprise Uz-Tong Hong Co., which produces seats for cars, in parallel produces basketball, football, volleyball, tennis and other kinds of balls. It also produces many types of sports equipment — trampolines, tennis and badminton racquets, and sports shoes.
At the same time, most of the market is occupied by cheap Chinese products that are not always of the appropriate quality. Therefore, one of the immediate tasks of the new free economic zone is the saturation of the domestic market and the ousting of Chinese imports first from the country and then from the region.
