TASHKENT

The World Bank approved a $50 million concessional loan to finance a five-year project to modernise Uzbekistan’s national statistical system and improve the capacity of the State Committee on Statistics to produce and disseminate data in line with international standards.

The International Development Association, a part of the World Bank Group, will provide the loan “at a very low-interest rate and with a repayment period of 30 years, including a five-year grace period,” the lender said.

Uzbekistan recognises that many existing statistical systems are outdated and do not comply with international standards.

The World Bank said that the Uzbek authorities aim for much more ambitious improvements over the coming years, focused on improving access to timely, reliable, and accurate statistics to empower further reforms and Uzbekistan’s development.

The World Bank-funded project will support rapid improvements in human capacity and technological resources to process, analyze, and report key statistical measures.

“We are proud to support the implementation of the Strategy through the new project. Quality statistical data will help advance Uzbekistan’s ambitious transformation by strengthening decision making and policy implementation based on data and evidence,” Marco Mantovanelli, the World Bank country manager for Uzbekistan said.

The World Bank has provided extensive support to the implementation of the government’s 2017-2021 Development Strategy and its country programme for Uzbekistan is the bank’s second-biggest operation in the Europe and Central Asia region. Its country programme comprises 26 projects in areas such as economic management, agricultural modernisation, water resource management, health, education, potable water and sanitation, energy, transport, social protection, urban and rural infrastructure, the national innovation system and tax administration. The World Bank has also supported the government’s response to the health, economic, and social implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under its new five-year Country Partnership Framework that is being prepared now, the World Bank will continue providing financial and analytical support to the Government to implement reforms provided by Uzbekistan’s Development Strategy for 2022-2026, the bank said.

In December last year, the World Bank has approved a $400 million loan to support Uzbekistan in implementing economic and social reforms to accelerate the country’s transition to an inclusive and competitive market economy.

In June, the bank has approved a $100 million concessional loan to finance a project to improve urban infrastructure and municipal services in mid-sized cities in Uzbekistan’s southern Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya regions. A similar project, funded by an earlier $100 million loan from the World Bank for four mid-sized cities in the Tashkent, Bukhara and Namangan regions, was implemented over the last two years.