Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – On 5 August, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed the measures aimed at enhancing competition.

The ongoing efforts to reduce state involvement in the economy and curb large monopolies are positively impacting the competitive environment. Over the past five years, the competitive environment has improved for more than 25 products. Exclusive rights that restricted competition in 7 types of activities have been abolished. The number of state-owned enterprises has decreased by 42 percent, while the number of private enterprises has increased 1.6 times.

Last year, the Competition Law was revised. The Committee on Competition Development and Consumer Rights Protection has been granted additional effective powers. Studies based on this have shown that some organizations exhibit anti-competitive behaviors, such as making anti-competitive decisions, entering into direct contracts, and abusing market dominance.

In response, a Competition Development Concept has been developed to expand coverage and improve efficiency in this area. The concept outlines further tasks for reducing state involvement in the economy, liberalizing market access, and creating equal conditions for entrepreneurs.

Planned measures include the abolition of regulatory provisions and excessive requirements that hinder free market access for businesses.

Relaxations aimed at reducing regulatory burdens will be introduced, specifically replacing licensing procedures with mandatory liability insurance.

Independent market regulators will be introduced in natural monopoly sectors. In markets related to natural monopolies where competition is feasible, the participation of natural monopoly entities will be limited.

The scale of direct state procurement will be reduced, with a complete transition to competitive methods. State aid that limits competition, including exclusive rights, benefits, preferences, and concessions, will be abolished.

Through mutual integration of government information systems, digital monitoring of all stages of the pricing chain for socially significant products will be established. A whistleblowing and reward system for individuals providing information on anti-competitive agreements and actions will be implemented.

Overall, the implementation of this concept will involve phased elimination of 17 types of state monopolies in sectors such as energy, oil and gas, water management, road construction, railway, and airport services. Anti-competitive actions in state procurement will be curtailed, and transparency in these processes will be ensured. Commodity exchanges will see increased supply and expanded choices for buyers.

The President has given additional instructions to continue work in this area, ensuring free market principles, and promoting entrepreneurship.

The need to reduce state involvement in the economy and gradually transfer certain functions to the private sector has been emphasized. There is a task to continuously analyze the state of competition in commodity, financial, and digital markets and to propose improvements to procedures.

Over the past three years, more than 2,000 acts contradicting competition legislation have been identified at the local level, mostly documents from local authorities and ministries. There is a need to intensify the work of the territorial branches of the Committee on Competition Development and to enhance staff qualifications.

The importance of increasing transparency and strengthening the committee's communication efforts has also been highlighted. This is crucial for preventing legal violations and creating a transparent environment.