OFFICIAL LAUNCHING OF THE INVESTOR UZBEKISTAN 2026
AT THE TASHKENT INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT FORUM

The Investor Uzbekistan 2026  I  Press Release

At the opening ceremony of the fifth Tashkent International Investment Forum, copies of The Investor Uzbekistan 2026 reached heads of delegation as President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took the stage. The Special 35th Independence Anniversary edition was produced in partnership with the Ministry of Investments, with the support of the Administration of the President of Uzbekistan.

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The edition carries the country's investment story across its principal sectors, with a series of ministerial interviews, alongside contributions from the development banks and institutions financing Uzbekistan's growth. For readers of The Investor in print and online, it sets out in detail where Uzbek capital is heading.

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On 18 June the forum that hosted the launch closed with 166 signed agreements worth 43.1 billion dollars, of which 139 were new projects valued at 31.8 billion. The 2025 forum had closed at 30.5 billion, so the headline rose by more than 40 per cent in a single year. Interest in Uzbekistan has hardened into commitments meant to run for years.

Registered participants passed 10,409, with 3,802 foreign delegates arriving from 102 countries. Four years ago the forum drew 1,050 international guests. The count then climbed to 1,142 in 2023, 1,874 in 2024 and 2,022 in 2025. The 2026 total is more than three and a half times the 2022 number.

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President Mirziyoyev opened the plenary alongside President Bajram Begaj of Albania, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the prime ministers of Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, and Adylbek Kasymaliev, head of the Kyrgyz cabinet. Seventy-six government representatives attended in all, against 26 the year before. The development banks came in strength too: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the New Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the European Investment Bank.

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Real-sector companies sent 3,145 representatives, 1,480 more than the year before. The names in Tashkent read like a register of global capital: BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Visa, Franklin Templeton, Standard Chartered, London Stock Exchange Group, Bank of China, BP, Masdar, ACWA Power, Airbus, John Deere, Meta, Coca-Cola, DP World and AD Ports Group. Together, the firms present manage assets valued at close to 42 trillion dollars.

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Uzbekistan has attracted more than 150 billion dollars in foreign investment, Mirziyoyev told the forum, with 123 billion of it secured in the past five years. Growth reached 7.7 per cent last year, when the economy drew in 43 billion dollars of foreign investment and reserves passed 70 billion. The country once aimed to lift its economy to 100 billion dollars by the end of 2026; it now expects to clear 180 billion this year. It advanced 14 places in the Index of Economic Freedom and entered the group rated moderately free for the first time.

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"For us, investment is far more than a source of capital," the president told the hall, describing it as a catalyst for technology and skills, and for development that keeps pace with a fast-changing world. The forum's theme, "Investment Resilience: New Frontiers, New Partnerships", framed an agenda he set out in six parts.

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The Tashkent International Financial Centre, begun in March, anchors the first of those, investor protection. It will rest on a dedicated constitutional law and the principles of English common law. Participants will pay zero corporate income tax, value-added tax, property tax and customs duty for an initial 50 years, with free movement of capital and transactions in any currency guaranteed. An independent regulator will write the rules. A separate Tashkent International Commercial Court, staffed by foreign judges, will hear disputes, and Uzbekistan intends to join the United Nations Singapore Convention on Mediation.

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In the capital markets, the country has placed more than 16 billion dollars of bonds abroad and introduced corporate Eurobonds in the national currency. The listing of 30 per cent of the National Investment Fund, which manages assets in 13 strategic enterprises, ran on both the Tashkent and London exchanges and became the largest London listing in five years. New laws on the capital market and on alternative investment funds will follow, along with a sovereign sukuk programme that Mirziyoyev expects to draw at least 10 billion dollars. A further 6 billion in state assets goes to auction this year under the privatisation programme.

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Uzbekistan puts its subsoil wealth at 3 trillion dollars, held in gold and copper, in uranium and tungsten, and in natural gas. The government will open a digital geological database and put four times as many deposits to auction. Two Metals of the Future technoparks, in the Tashkent and Samarkand regions, will carry projects from extraction through to finished goods. Work in advanced chemicals alone could absorb 20 billion dollars, create 15,000 jobs in the regions and yield 130 new products. Mirziyoyev put a further 30 billion dollars of joint projects on the table in machine-building, robotics, light industry, construction materials, electrical engineering and pharmaceuticals, with a plan to raise high-technology output two and a half times over five years.

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Renewables are set to reach 54 per cent of electricity generation, with proposals open on storage systems and grid modernisation, and on data centres powered by clean energy. For artificial intelligence, the government has adopted a national strategy and launched a Five Million Leaders training programme, and forecasts 10 billion dollars of added value within five years. A dedicated zone in Karakalpakstan exempts investors from every tax until 2040, with the state funding road and utility connections and a power tariff held at five cents per kilowatt-hour. A new International Digital Technology Centre, with its own legal regime, sits alongside it.

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Construction continues on the railway joining China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Work advances on the Trans-Afghan Corridor towards southern seaports, and on the Middle Corridor across the Caspian. With Saudi partners, Uzbekistan is building a new Tashkent international airport designed for 20 million passengers a year, and it opened its high-speed roads and logistics centres to private capital.

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A population approaching 40 million stands behind a major urban building programme. By 2040 the government plans to double housing construction and lift the urbanisation rate from 51 to 65 per cent. New Tashkent, a metropolis for 2 million people, is rising next to the capital. Andijan and Namangan are being remade as cities of more than a million, and Samarkand is set to join them. Housing alone offers a guaranteed market of 10 billion dollars a year, and public-private infrastructure projects add 27 billion. Tourism rose 27 per cent in the first five months of the year, to 5.5 million visitors, against a longer-term potential of 15 to 20 million; farm exports of 3.5 billion dollars already reach more than 70 countries, with a target of 10 billion.

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The programme ran to 79 events, including 34 panel discussions and eight investment pitch sessions. Seven bilateral business forums brought together delegations from the United States, China, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the sessions reached across renewable energy, transport corridors, digital government, artificial intelligence, Islamic finance and food security.

Alongside the talks, an exhibition of the country's investment potential set out openings in agriculture and light industry, with electronics and information technology beside them, in an immersive format that let visitors stand close to the manufacturing capacity behind each product.

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The Foreign Investors Council under the President grew from 54 member companies to 85, drawn from 19 countries and 23 sectors, and the council produced 21 initiatives, with eight regulatory documents adopted on its recommendation. The forum also welcomed the Regional Alliance of Investment Councils of Central Asia and the Caucasus, an initiative of the Asian Development Bank and the EBRD that points towards a shared investment space across the region.

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Coverage came from 209 foreign journalists representing 41 countries, with reporting from Bloomberg, Reuters, Nikkei, Euronews, BBC News, CGTN and TRT. Away from the negotiating rooms, the TIIF Open tennis tournament and the Silk Road Night Run drew more than 500 runners and players from over 16 countries.

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The most important partner in turning ambition into reality, Mirziyoyev said in closing, is an investor with good intentions. "The doors of New Uzbekistan will always remain open," he added, to those who arrive with trust and ideas. The 43.1 billion dollars now passes to a second phase, the one where contracts turn into construction and financing. For the companies that signed in Tashkent, and for the edition that recorded the week, the real measure now moves from the conference hall to the projects themselves.