Uzbekistan & US DFC Plan Joint Investment Platform

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Uzbekistan and Washington's development finance arm are moving toward a structured joint investment vehicle — a step that could significantly expand American capital flows into one of Central Asia's fastest-reforming economies.

Deputy Minister of Investments, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan Akram Aliev met with Jonathan Taylor, Head of the Legal Department for Direct Investments and Investment Funds at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), to advance a bilateral investment agenda that now centers on a proposed Joint Investment Platform.

The platform concept — discussed in detail during the talks — would establish a formal mechanism for identifying priority projects and structuring their financing, moving the Uzbekistan-DFC relationship beyond ad hoc deal-making toward a systematic, pipeline-driven model of capital deployment. Both sides reviewed approaches to project selection and the financial instruments that would underpin the initiative.

The DFC, which replaced the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in 2019 and commands a financing capacity of up to $60 billion, has been steadily expanding its footprint across Central Asia as Washington pursues its strategic interest in reducing the region's economic dependence on Russia and China. Uzbekistan, which has attracted record levels of foreign direct investment following President Mirziyoyev's liberalization drive, represents one of the institution's most active engagement theaters in the region.

Beyond the platform, discussions ranged across a broader portfolio of prospective investment projects and the mechanisms for deepening cooperation in the investment sphere more generally.

"The sides reached an agreement to continue joint work aimed at developing the bilateral investment partnership and advancing new projects," according to the official readout issued after the meeting.

The talks mark another data point in Uzbekistan's deliberate strategy of diversifying its external investment base — engaging Western financial institutions as counterweights to regional heavyweights while accelerating domestic economic transformation.