Uzbekistan joined the World Bank and the International Development Association (IDA) in September 1992. The Bank's current Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) (FY02-04) has the following principal objectives: (a) to help improve the policy framework for foreign exchange and trade liberalization, and for improved governance and transparency; (b) to assist in strengthening the environment for private sector development, including foreign direct investment; (c) to increase the efficiency of resource allocation and use especially in social infrastructure; and (d) to reinforce the maintenance and effectiveness of the country's irrigation and drainage infrastructure. It envisions two lending scenarios: a Low Case of up to US$150 million during FY02-04; and, if the macroeconomic and structural reform process accelerates, a Base Case of up to US$350 million during the same period.
The Bank's first loan, for Institution Building Technical Assistance (US$21 million), was approved in October 1993 and closed on October 31, 2000.
Two loans were approved in FY95: (i) a Rehabilitation Loan (US$160 million) that provided foreign exchange to finance critical imports and (ii) a Cotton Sub-sector Improvement Project (US$66 million) that is helping improve the quality (and thus enhancing the grade and price) of cotton fiber sold by Uzbekistan on the world market and supporting private investment in the production and marketing of cotton seed.
In FY98, three loans totaling US$127 million were approved: (i) a Water Supply, Sanitation and Health Project (US$75 million), co-financed by the Kuwait Fund for Social and Economic Development (US$16 million) and the German Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (US$6 million), to finance the provision of safe drinking water, improved sanitation facilities, and related health education in the two regions most severely affected by the Aral Sea disaster, Karakalpakstan and Khorezm; (ii) the Tashkent Solid Waste Project (US$24 million), co-financed with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (US$19 million); and (iii) an Enterprise Institutional Building Loan (US$28 million) to support implementation of privatization and widen participation in the nascent capital market, including legislation to protect shareholders' rights.
In FY99-00, three loans totaling US$84 million were added to the portfolio: (i) a Health project (US$30 million) to improve the quality, cost effectiveness, management, and financing of primary health care services; (ii) a Financial Institutional Building Loan (US$25 million) to improve corporate governance and management capacity in commercial banks and to strengthen the regulatory and supervisory capacity of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan; and a $29 million loan for Urban Transport to help improve the quality, reliability and sustainability of urban transport services in five cities - Samarkand, Namangan, Bukhara, Nukus and Almalyk.
In FY02 to date, the Bank has approved two operations: a $36 million loan for the Rural Enterprise Support Project that will increase the profitability and sustainability of agriculture through the privatization and restructuring of farming and associated agribusiness activities; and, a $20 million IBRD loan and $20 million IDA credit to help finance the Bukhara & Samarkand Water Supply Project. The latter, with an estimated total cost of about $62 million, aims to help improve the quality, reliability, efficiency, and financial sustainability of potable water supply services in Bukhara and Samarkand, two of Uzbekistan's largest and most historic cities.
Uzbekistan is a beneficiary of and participant in two projects financed by the Global Environment Fund (GEF): the [Aral Sea Basin] Water and Environmental Management project, approved in 1998; and the Central Asia Transboundary Biodiversity project, approved in 1999. Uzbekistan has also received five Institutional Development Fund (IDF) grants for: (a) public procurement reform (Cabinet of Ministers); (b) improving economic data and statistics (Ministry of Macroeconomics and Statistics); (c) economic policy analysis and training (Center for Economic Research); (d) pension reform (Ministry of Social Maintenance); (e) anti-monopoly and competition policies (Anti-Monopoly Committee, Ministry of Finance); (f) and environmental protection (State Nature Protection Committee)
As of April 2003, Bank/IDA commitments to Uzbekistan (cumulative and net of cancellations) totaled US$536.54 million, of which US$333.26 million, or about 62%, had been disbursed. |
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