81296917-Creating a Green Business Development Ecosystem in Uzbekistan

Kurze Beschreibung

"Green private sector development and economic policy advice in Uzbekistan"

The economic reforms implemented in Uzbekistan since the end of 2016 show a number of successes. Nevertheless, economic development lags far behind the country's own expectations of comprehensive and sustainable industrialisation. The share of the manufacturing sector in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is steadily declining, from 21.3 % (2015) to 19.7 % (2019). Although the manufacturing sector could generate large employment effects, the share of employment in manufacturing has fallen steadily over the past 15 years to 9 % and remains at this level. The Uzbek economy is thus unable to provide sufficiently good employment opportunities for the rapidly growing population. Women make up 44 % of the industrial workforce, but are mostly employed in low-wage sectors such as textile production.

The government of Uzbekistan tries to promote industrial development with various initiatives such as industrial clusters, parks and zones. The Green Economy Strategy 2030 and the Industrial Development Strategy 2030 are core areas of the National Development Strategy 2022-2026, which places great emphasis on the industry as a driver of economic development and the introduction of green technologies to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.

Uzbekistan lacks strategic orientation and targeted promotion of industrial enterprises. The reason for this is the insufficient personnel and operational capacities of relevant public sector actors for industrial policy.

There is a lack of capacity of vocational education and training institutions to provide necessary skilled labour as well as a lack of demand-driven Business Development Services (BDS) to increase the competitiveness and value addition of the industrial sector that could make a significant contribution to economic development.

The project "Green private sector development and economic policy advice in Uzbekistan" (hereinafter the Project) is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The Project supports Uzbekistan in its efforts to promote green industrialisation and to thereby introduce energy- and resource-efficient production processes and create the conditions for a long-term decoupling of economic development and the use of natural resources.

The Project consists of four interconnected outputs:

Output 1 aims to strengthen the human and operational capacities of relevant public sector actors for industrial policy. Under this Output, the Project cooperates closely with relevant ministries and other state bodies.

Output 2 aims to reinforce the private sector's technical capacities to implement more sustainable production in the industrial sector. Also, the Project plans to develop pilot concepts for the transformation of two industrial zones into Eco-Industrial Parks.

Output 3 aims to promote demand-oriented Business Development Services to increase the competitiveness of companies in selected "future-oriented manufacturing sectors". The Output foresees piloting four support schemes to boost competitiveness and promote cooperation between industrial companies, research institutions, and universities. While the Project is open to working with companies of every size under this output, it is interested in particularly promoting Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

Output 4 aims to increase cooperation between European and Uzbek companies in the field of green industrialisation and to strengthen future-oriented sectors, which is expected to increase investments in these fields. The cooperation projects between European and Uzbek companies are initiated through the developPPP Service Centre.

The Project is commissioned for three years (12/2022 - 12/2025) with a total budget of EUR 9 million.