Opening up Uzbekistan: Part 1

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

BBC journalist Rayhan Demytrie is from Uzbekistan and was recently invited back to her country to explore how after almost 30 years the government is opening up the country and it's economy.

In part one of this two part Business Daily special Rayhan hears how tourists are encouraging business growth in the famous Silk Road city of Samarkand. In an interview with the Uzbek deputy finance minister, Odilbek Isakov, Rayhan asks about selling and privatising state owed assets like a Coca-Cola bottling plant and whether doing this is profitable for the country.

We also hear how important ties with Russia are in Uzbekistan and how a very cold winter has put pressure on energy supplies and the economic revival of this former Soviet country.

Presenter / producer: Rayhan Demytrie Image: Mosque in Samarkand: Credit: Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Namulanta Combo here and I'm excited to tell you that my award-winning podcast, Dear Daughter, is back for a second season and it's available now.
0:11.3	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:18.6	Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me, Rehan Dimitri. In today's program, Uzbekistan is opening up for business.
0:30.7	Central Asia's most populous country of 35 million has largely been closed to the outside world for almost three decades.
0:41.3	I was born there and now I'm returning as a journalist to see how my country is changing.
0:48.3	So 1,100,000 soon.
0:53.3	It's looking like big money but this is not big money.
0:58.6	In this two-part Business Daily special,
1:01.9	I will take you on a journey to the fabled ancient city of Samarkand,
1:06.4	which was once a trade centre along the Silk Road between Europe and Asia.
1:13.3	We'll talk about the government's efforts to restore Uzbekistan as a center of trade and
1:18.5	commerce through market reforms.
1:20.9	We want to show that we can provide all conditions for foreign investors.
1:26.4	As we consider ourselves as one of the Central Asian economic tigers.
1:36.8	But is this tiger ready to roar?
1:42.4	An unusually cold winter this season has exposed weak points in Uzbekistan's energy sector.
1:51.3	The war in Ukraine is also having an impact on Uzbekistan's economy.
1:56.5	While inside, the country is still grappling with authoritarianism, corruption and nepotism.
2:02.9	Because we are entering an age of wild capitalism, like Russia had in the 90s, for example,
2:09.9	and those people are just crazy. They have a lot of money. They can do anything.
2:15.5	That's all coming up in Business Daily on the BBC World Service.
2:24.6	I'm in Samarkand.
	...

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