Why Uzbekistan

A key opportunity is developing interconnected production and service capabilities that can integrate Uzbekistan more closely into global supply chains. Expanding production capacity increases demand for machinery, energy, engineering solutions, logistics and specialised services. Construction, in turn, provides the infrastructure required to accommodate new production facilities, increase productive capacity and support broader business activity.

For investors, this structure creates opportunities to participate not only in final production but also across different stages of value creation and delivery. These may include processing, industrial component manufacturing, logistics, infrastructure and specialised services. As connections between sectors deepen, businesses operating in Uzbekistan can become more integrated into international supply chains, while investment can contribute to building deeper value-adding capabilities serving both domestic and external markets.

The 2020 experience is particularly significant. As the global economy entered a severe downturn, Uzbekistan still recorded 1,6% real GDP growth. For investors, this highlights the role of domestic factors in sustaining economic activity when external conditions deteriorate. Domestic demand, investment and industrialisation create additional channels for economic activity and expand productive capacity. This supports diversification by reducing the dependence of market opportunities on a single export commodity or industry.

As the productive base expands, so does demand for equipment, transport, logistics, infrastructure, digital solutions and professional services. The development of these interconnected areas strengthens supply chains and creates additional opportunities for investment. For companies, this means opportunities extend beyond access to the domestic consumer market to participation in manufacturing, infrastructure, supply chains and supporting services.

The decade-long trajectory shows an economy that is not only growing, but also expanding the number of interconnected sources of economic activity, creating a broader foundation for long-term investment.

Inflation has eased over recent years, supported by balanced monetary policy, exchange-rate appreciation and weaker imported price pressure. Lower core inflation has contributed to the same trend. The Central Bank's policy framework is designed to consolidate it and bring inflation towards the 5% target.

For the economy, reaching and maintaining that target would mean more than lower consumer-price growth. A stable inflation anchor can improve the transmission of monetary policy, strengthen the reliability of economic forecasts and provide businesses with a clearer reference point for pricing, investment and financing decisions.

For international investors, these improvements matter because capital-intensive projects depend on assumptions that extend well beyond the current economic cycle. Greater price predictability can make project costs, cash flows and investment returns easier to assess.

The moderation of inflation is therefore part of a broader institutional and market transformation that can make Uzbekistan's long-term investment environment progressively more predictable.

At the same time, imports are supporting the expansion of the country's productive base. In 2025, imports increased by 18,5% to $47,4 billion. Machinery and transport equipment represented the largest import category. This includes industrial and energy equipment, agricultural machinery, electrical machinery and equipment, telecommunications equipment and other types of transport equipment. This composition reflects growing demand for technologies needed to modernise enterprises, improve productivity and expand production capacity. Import growth should therefore be viewed in the context of an ongoing investment cycle. The equipment and technologies being brought into the country enable businesses to increase output, develop local supply chains and strengthen their future export capacity.

This expansion is taking place across a broad trading network. Uzbekistan maintains trade relations with 210 countries, allowing businesses to diversify their export destinations. For investors, this creates an opportunity to build production not only for growing domestic demand but also for multiple international markets, using Uzbekistan as a platform for regional expansion.

This demographic momentum gives companies a longer planning horizon. Growing cohorts of young people gradually become consumers, employees and entrepreneurs, supporting demand while adding to the economy's productive capacity. For businesses operating in Uzbekistan, this creates opportunities that can develop alongside the population itself.

For international investors, the combination of market scale and labour availability can be particularly valuable. Manufacturing, services, logistics and other expanding industries can benefit from a domestic market with significant depth while building operations around a broadening base of human resources.

But demographic growth creates its greatest economic value when people can move successfully into productive activity. The ability to accommodate a growing working-age population therefore becomes an important measure of how effectively the economy is converting demographic potential into investment, output and long-term growth.

As economic activity becomes more diversified, employment opportunities are expanding across a broader range of industries and business models. This allows new entrants to the labour market to be absorbed into productive activity while giving existing businesses greater scope to expand their workforce.

For investors, the combination of a large labour pool and improving employment conditions can strengthen the attractiveness of Uzbekistan as an operating base. Companies can access a growing workforce while benefiting from an economy in which more people are participating in formal economic activity and generating demand.

The significance goes beyond the unemployment rate itself. A labour market that can accommodate demographic growth while supporting rising employment provides an important foundation for scaling production, developing services and building longer-term operations. It strengthens the connection between Uzbekistan's demographic potential and its investment potential.

A significant share of this capital is being converted into productive assets. In 2025, $19,1 billion of FDI went into fixed capital, supporting manufacturing facilities, energy projects, logistics and infrastructure. These investments expand production capacity, generate demand for local suppliers and create the conditions for new businesses and supply chains to develop around major projects.

At the same time, Uzbekistan's investment base is becoming more diversified, with the largest investor accounting for less than one third of total inflows. This creates greater space for new international participants and reduces reliance on any single source of capital. For global businesses, this means that the infrastructure and production base established by the current investment cycle is creating new opportunities for technology-intensive projects, manufacturing and deeper integration into regional value chains.

Alongside this domestic base, Uzbekistan has already developed a substantial foreign-invested business community, with 18 164 enterprises carrying foreign capital. The fact that 76,6% of these companies are wholly foreign-owned demonstrates that international businesses can establish and maintain independent operations in the market.

This combination is particularly relevant for scalable investment projects. An international company can initially serve Uzbekistan's domestic market, then develop local suppliers and production capabilities, and ultimately use the country as a platform for regional supply. The existing entrepreneurial base can therefore serve not only as a source of local partners, but as the foundation for export-oriented production ecosystems in which international companies, local suppliers and service providers develop together.