Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — In 2024 the EBRD set an investment record in Uzbekistan by signing 34 projects the amount of €938 million (US$960 million).  The country once again became the leading recipient of the Bank’s funding in Central Asia. 55 per cent of the Bank’s investments were supporting green economy projects.

Together with almost €383 million directly mobilised from co-financiers, it brought over €1.3 billion into the country’s real sector. 

The EBRD supported the first renewable hydrogen facility in Central Asia by providing a US$ 65 million financing package to a joint venture of ACWA Power and Uzkimyosanoat. This will help to decarbonise the fertiliser production sector in Uzbekistan. 

The EBRD organised an A/B loan of US$226 million for the development, design, construction and operation of a 200 MW solar photovoltaic power plant and a 501 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Tashkent region. To date, this is one of the largest EBRD-supported BESS projects in the economies where the Bank operates. 

Its sovereign loan of US$66.4 million to the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NEGU) will support the construction of a 230 km 500 kV transmission line in the Navoi region. This project will help to eliminate bottlenecks in the grid and reduce electricity outages and will also facilitate the integration of renewables.

The EBRD’s sovereign loan of up to US$238 million will help to rehabilitate a key road and build a bridge across the Amu Darya River in the Khorezm region of western Uzbekistan thus contributing to the development of sustainable transport connections in Central Asia. 

The country’s financial sector attracted over €300 million from the EBRD through trade finance limits and loans to local financial institutions. The EBRD offered credit lines and risk sharing agreements to such domestic lenders as Hamkorbank, Ipoteka Bank, TBC Bank Uzbekistan and Uzbek Leasing International. Special attention was paid to the development and support of small and medium-sized businesses, including those needing energy efficiency improvements and those owned and managed by youth and women. During the year, EBRD also increased its equity investment in TBC Uzbekistan, the country’s first digital bank.

The EBRD and the government of Uzbekistan also agreed to work jointly on the successful privatisation of one of the country’s largest state-owned lenders Asakabank. 

In 2024 the EBRD’s Advice for Small Business Programme in Uzbekistan launched 60 advisory projects thus increasing its outreach to domestic SMEs. Half of them were with women entrepreneurs and over 40 per cent were in rural areas. More than 80,000 entrepreneurs around the country were reached through specialised trainings, networking, online outreach activities and knowledge sharing events.

Throughout 2024 the EBRD was actively engaged in policy dialogue with the national authorities, which facilitated the approval of several key legal acts such as laws on privatisation, electricity market and subsoil use.