TASHKENT

Uzbekistan will invest 20 million euros for large projects aimed to develop fish farms, cut land and income tax for family-based fish farms to ensure food security in the populous Central Asian republic.

Since 2016, Uzbekistan’s government has spent over $200 million to develop the fishing industry across the country of over 34 million, where fish consumption increased almost six times over this period, the press service of Uzbekistan’s president said.

“The global rise in food prices, inflationary risks clearly indicate that food security will remain the most pressing issue in the next year,” President Shavkat Mirziyoyev told the government meeting.

Mirziyoyev instructed the heads of the regional administrations to analyse the state of fish farming in their region and systematically work to create all conditions for entrepreneurs and households, according to his press service.

Uzbekistan will start the initiative by launching intensive fish farming in 10 thousand households, clusters breeding more than 80 tonnes of fish per year on the basis of cooperation will be exempt from taxes for a period of three years. Clusters that have attracted foreign specialists will be reimbursed for part of their costs.

The government will allocate additional funds under the state programme Every Family is an Entrepreneur so family-based fish farms could purchase equipment and other required facilities for intensive fish breeding. Their land and property tax rates will be reduced by 50 percent and they will be registered as self-employed.

Uzbekistan plans to produce 600,000 tonnes of fish in 2022.

In neighbouring Kazakhstan, the country’s Vice Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources Akhmetzhan Primkulov has also shared plans to attract investments to the country’s fishing industry.

“It is targeted to create 113 new commercial fishing farms, attract 5.8 billion of direct investments and grow up to 10,000 tonnes of fish a year, as well as to generate 1,000 new jobs,” Primkulov told the government meeting last week.

He said that Kazakhstan planned to raise up to 270,000 tonnes of fish and to build over 1,000 fisheries by 2030. Since the beginning of the year, some 12,000 tonnes of commercial fish were grown.