Uzbekistan's government has placed 5-year government securities on the Republican Currency Exchange (UzRVB) to diversify financial instruments and attract new participants to the financial market, the Finance Ministry said.

The snub was an eye-popping dismissal of hopeful talk by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Uzbekistan will offer 50 mining and prospective fields to foreign and domestic investors this year “on the basis of open and transparent market mechanisms” in an effort to identify the country’s mineral reserves and raise mining production.