TASHKENT (ADB press service) — The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Directors has approved a $300 mln policy-based loan to help improve economic management in Uzbekistan, which will help support macroeconomic stability and sustain high growth in the country.

The Economic Management Improvement Program will support important government efforts to ensure fiscal sustainability as well as improve governance in state-owned enterprises, which dominate almost all the important sectors of Uzbekistan’s economy, to make their operations financially viable.

The project will improve access to bank finance by strengthening bank supervision and intermediation to facilitate competitive financing of private sector operations, while also strengthening economic data collection, analysis, management, and dissemination systems to bolster economic decision making.

“The reforms are expected to improve economic management and create a stable investment climate in Uzbekistan that are necessary to increase private sector participation in the economy,” said ADB Country Director for Uzbekistan Mr. Takeo Konishi.

Apart from the loan, ADB will also provide a $1 mln technical assistance grant to enhance the government’s capacity to implement reforms, particularly in budget frameworks; public-private partnership; internal audit; risk-based supervision and capital adequacy assessment; and gender sensitivity of public expenditure programs, among others.