Country: Uzbekistan
Themes: Strengthening the Business Enabling Environment, Expanding Access to Competitive Contestable Markets, Promoting technology adoption to raise productivity
Cross Cutting Themes: Digital
Anticipated Impact Areas: Quality Jobs, Private Investment
The Challenge
The government of Uzbekistan views the services sector as a key driver for creating jobs for young people, attracting both domestic and foreign investment, and increasing exports. As part of its "Uzbekistan 2030" Strategy, the development of the services sector has been prioritized. To support this, the government has implemented various initiatives aimed at fostering growth in this area.
Mission
The objective of the C-JET grant was to generate new empirical evidence and identify policy priorities that can harness the services sector for Uzbekistan's development. The grant focused on identifying reform priorities that could improve the business environment, enhance competition, and create more and better jobs in the services sector. Key activities supported by the government included: (1) analytical work to benchmark the services sector (through the services module of ICA 2.0), (2) a firm-level survey to identify constraints to productivity and job creation, (3) economic and legal reviews of policies to remove barriers, and (4) policy dialogue.
The report "The Promise of Services-led Growth in Uzbekistan" highlighted the significant potential of the services sector. It provided novel empirical findings and proposed a policy framework to guide Uzbekistan’s authorities in leveraging the services sector for national growth and development. The report stressed the critical role of the services sector in driving female employment in the country and underscored the importance of digital connectivity. Special emphasis was placed on export-oriented, knowledge-intensive services as a central pillar of the policy framework.
The forthcoming Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) for Uzbekistan will identify both opportunities and challenges for growth, with a focus on the services sector. The findings of the report, which draw from a firm survey (partially funded by C-JET), also include computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling that demonstrates the potential benefits of services liberalization, particularly in the context of Uzbekistan's WTO accession process.
