Uzbek leader holds meeting to discuss increasing exports
06/02/2019 20:03
Uzbek leader holds meeting to discuss increasing exports
06/02/2019 20:03
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 6 February, a video-conference meeting was held under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, dedicated to the most important tasks of increasing exports in industries and regions.
The meeting was attended by the Prime Minister and his deputies, heads of ministries and departments, as well as the leadership of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, the city of Tashkent and the regions, representatives of large companies and ambassadors.
Export is an important factor in the stability of the economy. A sharp increase in exports is the only way to increase foreign exchange reserves.
As a result of measures taken in our country to facilitate and support export activities last year, exports amounted to US$14.25 billion and increased by 13.6 percent.
Over the past two years, the export geography has expanded to 50 countries and has covered 140 countries. Some 120 new products have been exported. In the export structure, the share of finished products was 56 percent, regional industrial exports grew by almost 1.7 times.
However, the country’s export potential is still not fully utilized.
At the meeting, the President noted the need to diversify the structure of exports, to bring the share of non-primary products to at least 60 percent. To this end, it is entrusted to develop a national export strategy for the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2019-2025.
This strategy will have to cover issues of transferring public services to exporters completely in electronic form, their financial support, entering the Doing Business ranking among the 50 countries with the highest rates of foreign trade. Based on foreign experience, the Assembly of Uzbekistan Exporters will be organized to coordinate the activities of exporters and provide them with comprehensive assistance.
The issues of overcoming the shortcomings in increasing exports, enhancing this work were discussed.
It was noted that last year the forecast for regional exports was not fulfilled, especially the indicators in Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, Samarkand, Jizzakh, Namangan regions and the city of Tashkent are especially unsatisfactory.
It was criticized that the indicators of regional exports of fruits and vegetables were much lower than predicted, the corresponding plan was not implemented in any region.
Naturally, export depends on the conjuncture in the world market. Foreign experts predict that world prices for major raw materials will be low this year. In this regard, the export forecast for 2019 is set at a rate that is 30 percent more than last year.
The head of state pointed to the need to make an export forecast based on accurate calculations and suggested introducing a new system in this area.
So, first of all, the activity of the Republican export headquarters will be radically improved. Representatives of the headquarters will be assigned to the Republic of Karakalpakstan and regions.
Also the deputies and advisers to the Prime Minister will be personally responsible for the fulfillment of the forecast for exports in the ministries, departments and business associations supervised by them.
The Republican Export Headquarters, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade will develop ten-day export schedules by industry and region, take measures to ensure the unconditional execution of the concluded export contracts and the signing of additional agreements.
Secondly, permanently operating export headquarters will be organized in every region, district and city. Under their leadership, a holistic system will be formed, covering the processes of optimal placement of export-oriented crops, providing farms with quality seeds and seedlings, harvesting without loss, sorting, packaging, storage and processing, up to the delivery of products to the foreign market. At the same time, these headquarters will help resolve issues of internal and external logistics, certification, increase the export of small businesses and, if necessary, provide loans for replenishing working capital.
In accordance with these tasks, the regional, district and city headquarters will include representatives of territorial administrations and departments of republican departments in economics, agriculture, transport, energy, customs, standardization, quarantine and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as commercial banks.
Headquarters in the regions are obliged to constantly work with exporters and promptly solve their problems, it was noted at the meeting. The results of the work done will be entered into the database and monitored online.
Thirdly, the ministers and heads of business associations will be responsible for the implementation of the export forecast in the supervised industries.
For example, the association of Uztekstilprom will be responsible for the entire cycle from the production of raw cotton in clusters to the export of all textile products produced in the republic.
It was noted the need to expand the production of goods with high added value with the use of modern technologies in industries.
Fourth, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, having effectively established a national export support system, will facilitate the entry of enterprises into the foreign market, take measures for their financial support and insure risks. It was noted that this system should work closely with export headquarters, the most important thing is that enterprises should feel the effect of its activities.
Fifth, all ministries and departments will be directly involved in ensuring exports.
In particular, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Investments and Foreign Trade, together with ambassadors, will identify demand and customers in foreign countries and regularly inform export headquarters.
Ambassadors assigned to the regions will assist the Khokimiyats in finding buyers on the foreign market and the participation of domestic enterprises in foreign exhibitions.
Sixth, great attention will be paid to improving transport and logistics services.
As you know, more than 20 international transport corridors and routes run through our country, and cooperation has been established with 30 countries in the field of international road transport. However, logistics and road infrastructure, the capacity of border customs points do not fully meet the ever-increasing transit requirements.
In this regard, the responsible persons were given instructions for further development of logistics centers and roadside infrastructure, improvement of the technical condition and throughput capacity of border customs points, and active implementation of information technologies in the process of registration of vehicles and cargo.
The task was given to optimize the tariff policy for the transport of passengers and goods by air, to assist private operators in the organization of the car fleet, to achieve discounts for transit countries from domestic exporters.
Seventh, the standardization and certification of export goods does not meet the requirements, most of the standards do not meet world standards, which creates serious difficulties for export. In this regard, UzStandard was tasked to eliminate, together with the ministries and departments concerned, the existing shortcomings in the field of certification and standardization.
The meeting also discussed issues of efficient organization of exports of fruits and vegetables. It is pointed out the need for optimal placement of crops in 67 regions specializing in fruit and vegetable farming, sending for export at least 25 percent of the grown products.
It was recommended to create fruit and vegetable clusters in these areas, to increase the number of modern processing enterprises.
It should be clearly understood: without high-quality cultivation of export-oriented fruits and vegetables, supplying them abroad during the year it is impossible to sharply increase their exports, said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Instructions were given for opening “green corridors” with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and the Baltic countries to create convenience for exporters of fruits and vegetables, access to the markets of China, South Korea, Japan, India, the USA and Europe and receive quarantine services permissions in the prescribed manner.
The meeting considered another urgent task - the expansion of service exports, especially the development of tourism.
It was emphasized that macroeconomic stability largely depends on ordering of imports, attention was paid to increasing production of import-substituting products, improving the policy of tariff and non-tariff regulation.
Responsible officials presented the reports on considered issues.
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