Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - The Government of Uzbekistan is exploring the possibility of providing cash assistance to people who have lost their jobs. This was announced at an online briefing on Wednesday by Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Jamshid Kuchkarov.

He noted that a number of developed countries of the world and some neighboring countries, such as Kazakhstan, Russia and others, pay certain payments (benefits) to people who have lost their jobs.

“Let’s call it grants or transfers - people are given money. This is an understandable situation - people are at home, especially private sector workers. Employees of budgetary organizations [in Uzbekistan] get paid, but private sector workers do not. Maybe someone pays, but, according to our data, mostly not,” the minister said.

Jamshid Kuchkarov noted that millions of people are employed in the informal sector of the economy of Uzbekistan, and it is difficult to transfer them to the legal sector of the economy.

Jamshid Kuchkarov said that from the very first days after the quarantine was announced, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed the government to provide people with income and meet their urgent needs.

“Several options are being considered on this issue. The Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations - we all think about this. This measure requires a lot of money. It’s about a few million people,” he said.

At the same time, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that it is too early to talk about it. He promised to return to a concrete discussion of this issue at his next meetings with reporters.

“These issues will be resolved by instructions and decisions of the head of state. Therefore, talking about this is a little early. When we have a specific position, we will immediately inform about it,” said Jamshid Kuchkarov.