Mirziyoyev critisizes development of PPP

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev criticized the measures taken in the country to develop public-private partnership in the fields of energy, transport, utilities and health. Reforms in this direction were on agenda of another conference on Wednesday.

The body that directly deals with PPP issues is the Agency for public-private partnership, which was organized in 2018. Over the past year, a separate law and more than 10 resolutions have been adopted in this direction.

Despite the created conditions, only 9 major public-private partnership projects in the fields of energy, health and utilities have been implemented so far. This is a very low figure, the President said.

He gave instructions on the implementation of PPP in electricity and gas spheres. This is the only way to reduce costs and losses, ensuring competition between manufacturers and suppliers.

Mirziyoyev also set a task to speed up 14 PPP projects in the field of health care in the amount of 270 million dollars.

He instructed to complete tenders for the creation of hemodialysis centers in Karakalpakstan, Khorezm and Tashkent within two months. This would provide access to this type of assistance to 1,100 citizens per year, as well as ease the burden on the budget, from which 100 billion soums is expected to be allocated annually for hemodialysis.

Uzbekistan registers more than 20,000 cancer patients every year. With this in mind the responsible persons were instructed to create two radiotherapy centers on the basis of PPP by the end of this year.

Mirziyoyev called the level of work in the field of transport and logistics absolutely unsatisfactory. Further development of the sphere will require 27 billion dollars.

"Today, the road from Tashkent to Andijan through the Kamchik pass takes 5-6 hours, 22 thousand cars pass through it. In the next 5 years, this figure will reach 40 thousand. With the launch of the Tashkent-Andijan toll road, the distance will be reduced to 3 hours, and the capacity will increase by 70 percent, " the President said.

Taking this into account, Mirziyoyev stressed the importance of developing project documentation and announcing a tender for the construction of a new tunnel through the Kamchik pass.

According to the analysis of international experts, the modernization of existing airports in Uzbekistan would require an average of 800 million dollars. The President instructed to develop together with the World Bank a technical task to sell airports in Tashkent, Bukhara, Ferghana and Urgench on the "package principle", which means the sale of unprofitable airports with profitable ones.

President Mirziyoyev separately reviewed projects in the sphere of public utilities.

Currently, the main task is to build and modernize the sewerage system in 31 large and medium-sized cities, 156 regional centers. The availability of sewage is 45 percent in Karshi, 37 percent in Andijan, 30 percent in Nukus, and 10 percent in Namangan.

Only 18 large and medium-sized cities have seen funds from international financial organizations in the amount of 912 million dollars so far. All construction projects in this sphere would require 2.6 billion dollars. According to Mirziyoyev, PPP in the field of urban sewerage would ease the burden of the budget and improve the quality of service.

The President noted that issues related to public-private partnership will continue to be under his personal control.