Largest British financial institutions keen to expand co-op with Uzbekistan - ambassador (Interview)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 24. The UK has been actively cooperating with Uzbekistan in various economic and social fields, UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Tim Torlot told Trend in an exclusive interview.
According to the ambassador, the countries cooperate closely in the financial sector, private sector development, economic governance, climate change, trade, security, and education.
As for economic governance and private sector development, in order to support Uzbekistan in this field, the UK Government has created a special flagship program.
“The UK is committed to supporting economic governance and private sector development in Uzbekistan through our flagship program, “Effective Governance for Economic Development” (EGED), which aims to support the government of the country and its citizens in effective, evidence-based design and delivery of economic policies,” the ambassador said.
Torlot emphasized that the above mentioned program is focused on labor code and labor relations policy design and implementation support, governance and restructuring of state-owned enterprises, support to public procurement reform, support to green transition, measuring informality, urban development, and housing policy reform, as well as the development of e-commerce.
Among the areas of cooperation between the countries, the ambassador placed great emphasis on the education sector.
“Education is another important area of cooperation. The UK is a contributor to the Partnership Compact for Education Reform through the Global Partnership for Education fund, aimed at supporting government to enable equitable access to transformative quality education,” he said.
Torlot pointed out that for several years there has been a tendency among the UK's educational institutions to expand their presence in Uzbekistan, which are also seeing ties with the institutions of the Central Asian country.
Further speaking, the ambassador pointed out the Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT), which was established in 2002, in collaboration with the Uzbek President's "UMID" Foundation, has been operating successfully by providing education programs in such areas as the economy, journalism, politics, natural scenes, social sciences, etc.
Torlot also highlighted that the financial services sector of Uzbekistan attracts UK companies, whereas, during the last six years, accounting firms have been actively expanding in Uzbekistan.
“The Big Four firms such as PWC, Deloitte, KPMG, EY and the legal firms such as Dentons have increased the number of their employees in Uzbekistan by a multiple over the last several years. KPMG, for example, started its business with just 4 people in 2017 and now has more than 250 employees. The company also plans to hire another 100 over the next twelve months. A similar trend can also be seen in the other Big Four companies, " the ambassador said.
The ambassador went further saying that the UK is willing to continue developing cooperation with Uzbekistan in the field of finance and highlighted the presence of Uzbek companies on the London Stock Exchange.
“The London Stock Exchange considers Uzbekistan a priority country and is keen to continue supporting Uzbek companies and banks issue Eurobonds, green bonds and conduct IPOs in London. Also, the UK’s largest banks such as Standard Chartered, Barclays, and Santander UK are considering expanding cooperation with the government bodies and organizations of Uzbekistan,” Torlot added.
Moreover, the ambassador noted that more and more British companies are entering the Uzbek market.
“In recent years, the number of enterprises with British capital in Uzbekistan has grown to 338, of which 215 are joint ventures and 123 are enterprises with 100 percent British capital,” he said.
In addition to what was said previously, the ambassador pointed out that trade relations between Uzbekistan and the UK have been showing positive dynamics as well.
“Uzbekistan is an important trading partner of the UK. Our bilateral trade has doubled in 2021 reaching just under $500 million. In 2021, Uzbekistan became the first country admitted into the UK’s Enhanced Framework GSP, which is now called the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS). This allowed 92 percent of goods made in Uzbekistan to be exported to the UK at zero tariff rate,” Torlot added.
Speaking about Uzbekistan’s accession process to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the ambassador outlined the UK’s support.
“The UK has been providing support to Uzbekistan in the accession to the WTO and has launched a new joint program with the USAID, to support textile and agricultural businesses in Uzbekistan in further exporting these products to UK markets,” he added.
In conclusion, Ambassador Torlot noted that the UK was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Uzbekistan more than 30 years ago.
“Since then the cooperation between the two countries has been growing strongly. And the UK is hoping to continue developing these relations,” he concluded.
