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“Reputation, trust and safety: improving the investment climate through effective anti-corruption policies and fight against the criminal economy”
Hello, dear forum participants!
His Royal Highness Prince Jean of Luxembourg, Mr. Christian de Boissieu, Mrs. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Mr. Christophe-Andre Frassa, all guests!
I am very pleased to meet with all of you at the Tashkent International Investment Forum.
This year’s Investment Forum is also extremely important because it brings together different areas, themes and experts.
The opinions, proposals, ideas presented at our current session on the topic of eradicating corruption and the hidden economy serve primarily the economic development and investment attractiveness of the country.
So, we thank you for your opinions and suggestions.
Many here are not indifferent to the reforms being implemented in Uzbekistan, especially changes in the fight against corruption, they know about them, as well as about the work that we have carried out and are carrying out in cooperation with you.
The transformations and reforms taking place in Uzbekistan makes possible to build its own model of the fight against corruption.
At the forum, two years ago, we mainly talked about our intentions and plans, yet today we share opinions about the work done and its outcomes.
Government agencies and organizations responsible for the fight against corruption, the business community, representatives of civil society institutions and the public are the main performers of today’s outcomes and achievements.
World experience has repeatedly shown us that reforms carried out without covering all layers of society are doomed to failure.
Let me briefly highlight some of the results achieved.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in his speech at the inauguration ceremony (July 14, 2023), noted that we all need to work together to fully eradicate this evil.
In addition, every year in his Address to the Oliy Majlis and the people of Uzbekistan the head of state separately touches on the issue of fighting corruption, and the adoption of many legal acts in this area shows the importance of the issue of fighting corruption at the level of state policy.
The establishment of major preventive mechanisms, the reduction of bureaucracy in public administration, ensuring openness and transparency, the improvement of the quality of public services, and the reduction of human factor through digitalization have become essential elements of state anti-corruption policy in recent years.
Firstly, the administrative reforms carried out last year gave start to the process of transition from manual to automatic control system.
In particular, due to the reforms in the public administration system, it was enabled to improve the structure of the Cabinet of Ministers and to eliminate duplicated functions. Most importantly, bureaucracy has been reduced and the nine-step process of ‘getting permission’ to promote a particular initiative has been eliminated.
Secondly, preventive mechanisms have been created to stop corruption in government bodies and organizations.
In particular, a rating system for assessing the effectiveness of anti-corruption work has been introduced, as well as the Openness Index, aimed at assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the work being carried out in ensuring the openness of the activities of government bodies and organizations.
The E-Antikorrupsiya Project has also been launched to prevent corruption risks in government bodies and organizations.
Thirdly, the public service quality has been improved, the number of unnecessary procedures has been decreased, and the number of public services provided electronically increased.
In particular, the requirement to provide 73 types of documents and information from citizens was canceled, and 17 requirements and conditions for 6 types of licenses and permits were canceled.
Of the 771 public services, more than 360 are provided electronically through the Single Portal of Interactive Public Services, including more than 240 services intended for business entities. The terms for provision of 59 types of public services have been reduced, if previously these services were provided within the range from 30 to 90 days, now they have been reduced from 1 to 30 days.
Fourthly, in order to reduce the human factor through digitalization, the widespread introduction of information and communication technologies in all areas has been further developed. In particular, within the framework of the Digital Uzbekistan 2030 Strategy, 369 projects related to the digitalization of the activities of government and economic management bodies have been implemented.
For example, in the economic area, such electronic platforms as ‘License’, ‘E-Auction’, ‘YERELEKTRON’, ‘Transparent Road’, ‘Transparent Construction’, ‘Agro Subsidy’, ‘Electronic Public Procurement System’ and other information systems effectively serve to reduce corruption risks.
Fifthly, in order to improve the anti-corruption area and eliminate legal gaps, 13 regulations were adopted, as well as 24 regulations aimed at reducing corruption factors in other areas.
With the adoption of many regulatory legal acts in this area, the necessary conditions have been created for the implementation of effective and efficient public control in public administration by ensuring openness and transparency in the activities of government bodies and organizations and establishing the accountability of officials to the population.
Dear participants of the event!
Now let me draw your attention to some figures and measures taken to prevent corruption in business.
In order to prevent corruption in business, a number of measures have been taken to create conditions for fair competition, inspect the activities of business entities, prevent illegal interference in their activities, and protect the rights of entrepreneurs.
In 2023, out of 4,703 requests submitted by 27 regulatory authorities for approval of inspection, 2,399 (51 percent) were approved, and the remaining 2,304 (49 percent) rejected due to the lack of legal grounds for conducting inspection.
Compared to the same period in 2022, the number of inspections of entrepreneurs in 2023 decreased by 42,914 (26 percent).
Measures have been taken to amend, make additions, or terminate more than 15 regulations that have a negative impact on the activities of business entities.
As a result, the accrual of interest and penalties when making a court decision on the collection of debt on a loan was stopped, the rights of tax authorities to seize documents and items of the taxpayer were canceled, and the privatization of land plots was allowed for business entities that have fulfilled investment obligations.
During the Business Forum held in 2021 by the Anti-Corruption Agency together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Business Ombudsman, the Anti-Corruption Business Charter was adopted. Over the past period, 226 business entities joined the Charter.
At the same time, for to create a favorable business environment in Uzbekistan, legality, transparency of business activities and prevention of corruption in relations with government agencies, the practice of holding ‘Integrity in Business Community of Uzbekistan’ Business Forum has been established.
The Business Forum brings together hundreds of representatives of various business areas, ministries and departments, journalists, representatives of public and international organizations, as well as foreign experts.
During a social survey conducted with the participation of more than 2,490 business entities regarding facts of corruption in the implementation of their activities, the majority of them responded that they had not encountered cases of corruption. In their opinion, the level of corruption in Uzbekistan has decreased significantly in recent years.
Dear guests!
Openness and transparency are the main enemies of the shadow economy and corruption.
Uzbekistan is taking serious steps in this track. As a result of the measures taken, government bodies disclose the results of their work. Information on budget expenditures, public procurement and property are among those 40 types information meant to be disclosed as open data.
Moreover, online platforms are widely used for to ensure the openness of government bodies in all areas. Those are:
- system of public discussion of draft regulatory legal acts (regulation.gov.uz);
- online platforms to view and track online the data about the state budget and debt, as well as public procurement (openbudget.uz, xarid.uzex.uz, etender.uzex.uz);
- portal of electronic public services of tax authorities (my.soliq.uz);
- online auction for the sale of state assets, real estate, vehicles, obtaining the right to use land plots and other procedures (e-ijro.auksion.uz);
- electronic platform for online access to court documents (decisions.esud.uz).
In addition, in accordance with the resolution of the head of state, the Anti-Corruption Agency is entrusted with the task of establishing control over the transparency of the processes of using loan funds allocated by international financial institutions for the implementation of 24 major and important investment projects, and today the Agency monitors compliance by the responsible ministries and departments of requirements to ensure openness in the implementation of these projects.
Information about the progress of work within the projects is posted on an ongoing basis on specially created separate websites.
The measures taken in the country is following with the formation in the society of intolerant attitude towards corruption, and Uzbekistan’s position is improving in international rankings and indices.
In particular, over the past two years, Uzbekistan has risen from 140th place to 121st place (+19 positions) in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, from 147th place to 131st place (+16 positions) in the TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix Index, from 78th to 76th place (+2 positions) in the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index. In the Open Data Inventory, Uzbekistan with 70 points took 30th place in the world and 1st place in Central Asia.
Dear forum participants!
Despite the ongoing reforms, we still have lots of measures to be taken to completely eradicate corruption in the country.
To this end, we are developing the National Strategy 2030, which determines the immediate state policy to combat corruption.
This national strategy analyzes current trends in the fight against corruption, and also sets priorities for remaining problems in the field and their solutions.
Secondly, we began work on the implementation of the Virtual Anti-Corruption Academy.
This Academy will operate online with special courses for civil servants, citizens and business representatives.
Thirdly, measures to prevent corruption in the business sector will be strengthened, in particular, special attention will be paid to the implementation of a compliance control system in this area, the development of business integrity standards, and the creation of mechanisms aimed at creating an equal competitive environment for all entrepreneurs.
Fourth, we will continue consistent reforms to reduce the shadow economy, encourage honest entrepreneurs, and further expand the number of public services provided to entrepreneurs remotely.
Of course, these are not final or absolute tracks to work. We will improve and update them, putting them through the prism of benefits for the people. Suggestions from international and partner organizations will also be used to improve these intentions. And all this will be submitted for public discussion.
Thus, every question raised, proposal put forward and initiative is very important to us.
Thank you!
Compliance control