Uzbekistan plans to sell a controlling stake in the country’s second largest state-owned Uzpromstroybank by 2023, as a part of the government’s programme to reform banking system.

The decision was made by the government on Tuesday.

The Central Asia country makes efforts to improve its investment climate after more than two decades of economic isolation that kept foreign private businesses at a distance. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev made the attraction of foreign investors one of the top priorities of his ambitious reform agenda.

The World Bank’s private sector arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), signed an agreement with Uzpromstroybank in 2019, pledging to assist the bank in the process of transformation and privatisation.

Uzpromstroybank, which has international credit ratings of “BB-” by both S&P and Fitch rating agencies, now expects a $75 million loan from the IFC in order to convert it into ordinary shares.

IFC and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have been involved and invested in the transformation of several large banks in Uzbekistan to make them more attractive to private investors.

The government said that at least six state-owned banks would be partially or fully sold this year to foreign investors.