TASHKENT

Uzbekistan is adjusting its massive privatisation programme to bring it more in line with market practices, from setting starting prices at market valuations to allowing the sale of land at online auctions.

The government is planning to sell 900 assets in 2021. It will abolish the practice of selling state property at a starting price of 1 Uzbek soum ($1=10,587 soums), selling them at online auctions at a market price instead, the president’s press service said.

The government will also no longer tie the sale of land plots to specific investment obligations – investors will be allowed to purchase the plots at online auctions. It will also no longer charge a participation fee for online auctions, and the country’s State Asset Management Agency (UzSAMA) will cover participants’ electronic registration costs. When buying real estate at auction, the payment period will be extended from 5 to 15 days,  the press service said.

“Much remains to be done. In particular, 288 out of 556 objects designated for sale have not yet been put up for auction,” the press service said in a statement. “In addition, 511 objects at the disposal of enterprises and banks with state participation, which are not related to their main activities, have not yet been sold.”

The changes were announced during a meeting on privatisation chaired by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who instructed the government to reduce the number of businesses partially or fully owned by the state at least threefold this year and in 2022.

In total, Uzbekistan aims to partially or fully dispose of 1,400 state-owned companies and assets by selling them to foreign and domestic investors.

After more than two decades of economic isolation, the Central Asian country is making efforts to reform its centralised economy. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has made attracting foreign investors one of his top priorities in a reform programme that has included liberalising the country’s foreign exchange market and modernising business practices, cutting down on the soviet-era bureaucracy that still hampers many companies.

Under the previous regime, most companies were still run along Soviet-style management lines and held a number of non-core businesses and objects. State-owned oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz, for example, also owned poultry farms and orchards.

Uzbekistan has already sold 478 state-owned assets for 1.1 trillion soums ($104 million), according to data to July 1.