THIRTY YEARS IN

 

The partnership between the Asian Development Bank and the Republic of Uzbekistan dates to 1995, the year Uzbekistan joined the bank. ADB opened its resident mission in Tashkent in 1998. In the years that followed, the bank built up one of its largest and longest-running country operations anywhere in its membership of sixty-nine economies.

 

Since 1995, ADB has committed more than US$ 15.5 billion to Uzbekistan, including public sector loans, sovereign guarantees, grants, technical assistance, and non-sovereign cofinancing. Of that total, US$ 7.03 billion has come through 15 non-sovereign projects approved since 2004. In 2025, annual commitments reached a record US$ 1.4 billion. Uzbekistan currently chairs the ADB Board of Governors for 2025 to 2026, the first time the country has held the position.

 

The physical record on the ground is equally clear. Under ADB programmes, more than 1,400 kilometers of railway and 1,700 kilometers of road have been modernized. Approximately 4,000 kilometers of water supply networks and 550 kilometers of sewerage networks have been upgraded, and around 750 schools and educational institutions have been renovated. These investments span the country's transport corridors, its urban water systems, its rural irrigation networks, and the social infrastructure that supports a population now exceeding 37 million. The cooperation has also evolved in character.

 

What began as a conventional sovereign lending relationship has become a layered strategic partnership covering policy reform, institutional capacity, climate finance, private sector development, and regional integration. The portfolio breaks down across five sectors. Transport accounts for US$ 3.1 billion. Energy accounts for US$ 2.9 billion. Water supply, sewerage and urban services account for US$ 1.4 billion. Agriculture and water resources account for US$ 0.9 billion. The balance of around US$ 7.2 billion sits in private sector operations, budget support, and other sectors. Uzbekistan is the largest ADB beneficiary in Central Asia and among the top ten countries globally by ADB operations volume.

 

A NEW STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

 

The current operational basis for the partnership is the Country Partnership Strategy for 2024 to 2028, approved by the ADB Board in August 2024. Titled Fostering Deep Reforms for a Sustainable Transformation to a Green and Inclusive Economy, the strategy is built around three pillars. Pillar 1 facilitates Uzbekistan's transition to a green economy, with investments in renewable energy, climate-resilient water management, sustainable agriculture, climate-smart urban development, and the institutional reforms required to support each.

 

Pillar 2 supports private sector growth and competitiveness, with operations across macroeconomic reform, state-owned enterprise transformation, financial market development, and the modernisation of infrastructure that the private sector depends on.

 

Pillar 3 promotes human capital development, with a focus on education quality, health systems, and the skills required for a digitising economy.

 

Four crosscutting themes run through every pillar: governance reform, gender equality, climate change, and regional cooperation. The architecture is aligned directly with Uzbekistan-2030, the national development strategy adopted in 2023 and reaffirmed through the new constitution of the same year. Uzbekistan-2030 sets a clear destination: upper-middle-income status, GDP above US$ 240 billion by 2030, and a development model anchored on private sector competitiveness, human capital investment, and environmental resilience. ADB's strategy is engineered to support those targets at every level of execution.

 

THE SHAPE OF CURRENT OPERATIONS

 

The pace of new commitments has accelerated sharply over the past two years. In 2025 alone, ADB approved a programme that included the US$ 500 million Economic Management Improvement Program (Phase 2) to advance fiscal transparency, state-owned enterprise governance, and World Trade Organization accession reforms; the US$ 300 million Inclusive Finance Sector Development Program Subprogram 2 covering microfinance modernisation and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code; the US$ 125 million Climate-Smart Water Management Improvement Project for the digital transformation of the national water utility; the US$ 233.1 million loan for the Guzar to Beyneu highway section of CAREC Corridor 2; and the US$ 100 million STEM in Secondary Education Project covering 200 schools. The Glaciers to Farms regional programme, approved in October 2025 with US$ 250 million from the Green Climate Fund and US$ 3.25 billion in ADB cofinancing, names Uzbekistan among its primary beneficiaries.

 

Earlier work continues to compound. The Integrated Perinatal Care Project, approved in July 2024 with US$ 100 million, is upgrading 230 perinatal centres nationwide. The Horticulture Value Chain Infrastructure Project is financing agro-logistic centres in Andijan and Samarkand regions. The Power Sector Reform Program, with parallel cofinancing from Agence Française de Développement and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, is restructuring tariffs and grid investment to support the country's renewable energy build-out.

 

THE FORWARD PROGRAMME

 

The most significant single development of 2026 is the new partnership programme agreed between President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and ADB President Masato Kanda. The package commits US$ 12.4 billion through 2030, structured around US$ 2.6 billion for infrastructure project financing, US$ 3.3 billion for budget support for reforms, US$ 2.2 billion for results-based lending, US$ 2 billion for direct private sector financing, US$ 1.7 billion for public-private partnership projects, US$ 350 million for multitranche financing facilities, and US$ 250 million for partial credit guarantees.

 

A separate memorandum of understanding covers 28 specific projects worth US$ 4.2 billion for the 2026 to 2028 period. The forward pipeline includes mortgage market development, youth and women entrepreneurship financing, poverty reduction programmes, inclusive education reform, human capital development, digital innovation, and the modernisation of state-owned banks. The framing reflects how the institutional relationship now operates. ADB is no longer simply a lender of long-term capital. It is a strategic partner that combines sovereign financing with non-sovereign investment, transaction advisory work, policy dialogue, knowledge products, and convening capacity with regional initiatives such as CAREC.

 

REGIONAL CONTEXT, NATIONAL PRIORITIES

 

The wider regional architecture reinforces Uzbekistan's central position. ADB has announced plans to invest more than US$ 10 billion through 2030 to support projects under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation programme. The bank's US$ 50 billion Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative and US$ 20 billion Asia-Pacific Digital Highway, both announced in May 2026, position Central Asia as the western anchor of region-wide infrastructure architecture.

 

Uzbekistan's renewable energy build-out, its critical minerals reserves, its position at the intersection of three CAREC corridors, and its developing financial markets make it the natural partner for that architecture. ADB has also committed US$ 3.4 billion by 2030 to support entrepreneurship across the region, with Uzbekistan among the primary beneficiaries.

 

The institutional commitment runs deeper than headline figures. ADB's Uzbekistan Resident Mission has expanded its team and decentralised decision-making to bring sector expertise closer to government counterparts. The bank now provides sovereign and non-sovereign financing, transaction advisory work, policy dialogue, capacity-building support, and knowledge products across the priority sectors set out in the partnership strategy. In June 2025, ADB issued its first bonds denominated in Uzbek sum, raising the equivalent of US$ 24.7 million. The issuance was small by capital market standards. It was also an institutional signal: ADB now treats Uzbekistan's domestic capital market as a viable channel for development finance.

 

"We will not face the future as a fragmented region," Kanda told governors at Samarkand. "Instead, we will step forward as one, with ADB as your steadfast anchor." For Uzbekistan, the practical translation is straightforward. The next five years will see the largest concentration of ADB-supported investment in the country's history.

 

By 2030, the test will be whether the partnership has helped deliver upper-middle-income status, a US$ 240 billion economy, and a development model that other countries in the region treat as a benchmark. The capital is committed. The strategy is in place. The institutional partnership that has defined three decades of cooperation is now writing its most consequential chapter.