VIDEO | Turning logistics challenges into investment opportunities in Uzbekistan - Trade Treasury Payments

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At the Tashkent International Investment Forum, Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) spoke with Mansur Rasulev, Acting Director at the Investment Promotion Agency of Uzbekistan, to discuss how the country is reframing structural disadvantages into economic opportunities.

Rasulev began with a frank acknowledgement: “Being only one of only two double landlocked countries in the world, that puts some strain on our exporters.” But rather than treating geography as a constraint, Uzbekistan is using it to catalyse inward investment.

The country has abundant natural resources and a young, cost-competitive labour force, but Rasulev emphasised that logistics costs can erode competitiveness if goods are exported in raw form. The government’s strategy has therefore focused on attracting investment in value-added production to reduce the proportion of logistics costs in final product pricing.

One of the most cited examples is cotton. Rasulev explained, “Uzbekistan used to be one of the biggest suppliers of raw cotton and it was a very tricky situation where we would sell raw cotton to China and then import ready products from China.” That changed in 2018, when the government banned raw cotton exports and began actively courting investors to localise garment production.

A similar approach is now being applied to the country’s reserves of critical minerals. “Since we don’t have a direct access to ports here in Uzbekistan, it does not make sense to mine and sell raw materials,” Rasulev said. Instead, the government is creating conditions for foreign investors to set up processing facilities that can produce intermediate or finished goods, particularly for fast-growing sectors like electronics and batteries.

That focus on enabling investment extends to administrative reforms as well. Rasulev highlighted the single window system, first introduced in 2018, which aims to reduce bureaucratic friction for both domestic SMEs and foreign entrants.

“If you’re a business owner in Uzbekistan, we want to limit your interaction with the government to one specific platform, which is a digital platform,” he said. Business registration, permits, tax documentation can all be completed via a centralised portal. A similar service is now being rolled out to support foreign investors entering the Uzbek market.

The forum itself, Rasulev said, is part of that broader effort. It is Uzbekistan’s flagship event to showcase bankable projects and deepen international partnerships. “The Tashkent International Investment Forum is the flagship event that Uzbekistan organises to showcase its investment potential, announce new projects and find new opportunities for new partnerships.”

Looking ahead, Rasulev stressed that investment success must be judged on more than inflows. “We’re planning to exceed 40 billion US dollars this year,” he noted, up from just $3 billion in 2017. But the real measure, he added, lies in the quality of that investment: the jobs created, the wages paid, and the opportunities provided so that Uzbek citizens no longer have to go abroad for work.

“The President is very clear about one thing. We don’t measure success in investment attraction only by looking at numbers. You also look at the improvement of livelihood of Uzbek population.”