BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 4. The emergence of a medium-term strategic planning system, starting from the early period of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s ruling, has been a fairly new and effective method of managing the process of making political and socio-economic decisions and implementing reforms and a specific package of measures in Uzbekistan, independent economist, researcher Ulugbek Kamaletdinov told Trend.
“The implementation of the measures outlined in the Strategy of Uzbekistan for 2017-2021 made it possible to almost completely update the legislative framework and by-laws in the field of human rights protection, the financial and tax sphere, economic activity, expanding the freedom of entrepreneurial activity and foreign economic activity. At the same time, the New Strategy for 2022-2026 largely reflects the achievements of the previous strategy and is a successor document that outlines new reforms in seven areas,” Kamaletdinov said.
According to him, the openness of government agencies and the availability of statistical data have significantly increased in the country, which allow a more adequate assessment of the regional investment ecosystem and pragmatic planning of local and foreign investments in specific regions.
“In accordance with the new strategy, the role of mahallas (local self-government, variation of a municipality) in making local development decisions is significantly enhanced. The results of the “Open Budget” system are already visible, where part of the state budget is spent at the request of the local residents,” Kamaletdinov said.
According to the expert, the acceleration of digitalization of the public services system significantly contributes to the reduction of corruption and increases the level of accessibility of many public services at the local government level.
“Next in line is the transition to the electability of khakims (heads of administrations) of the regions. This could significantly strengthen democratic principles in the participation of citizens in public administration,” Kamaletdinov said.
According to him, digitalization has accelerated significantly in almost all sectors of the economy and management of Uzbekistan, which inevitably leads to the transformation of the decision-making system, investment, financial, banking, especially the “Electronic Government” system.