Nikolai Podguzov, Chairman of the Management Board at the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), spoke at the Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Samarkand on September 26 during the session titled New Uzbekistan – Big Country with Big Opportunities. The session was attended by Laziz Kudratov, Uzbekistan’s Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade, and Jin Liqun, President of AIIB. In his presentation, Podguzov emphasised Uzbekistan’s important and growing role as one of the region’s largest economies and stressed the need for cooperation among multilateral development banks (MDBs) to effectively use resources and address global and regional challenges.
He noted that Uzbekistan understands all these challenges and has immense investment and economic potential to turn them into opportunities. In recent years, the country has become a “growing hub of opportunities” and is undertaking sweeping reforms under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Podguzov focused on “glocalisation” (the localisation of global challenges), a new conceptual approach, noting that it is crucial to consider the unique characteristics and needs of Central Asia when addressing global issues.
He highlighted three key challenges for the region: the need for sustainable and rapid economic growth, better connectivity and access to water.
“The global challenge of sustainable economic growth is particularly relevant for Central Asia. But, for Central Asia, the goal is to achieve not only sustainable but also rapid growth. It is needed to shorten the income gap with rich countries,” Podguzov emphasized.
He pointed out that Central Asia is a region where all five countries are landlocked, with Uzbekistan being a double-landlocked country. In this context, he mentioned the concept of the Eurasian Transport Network developed by the EDB, emphasizing that linking the East–West and North–South transport corridors could create synergies, potentially boosting the region’s freight traffic by up to 40%.
Podguzov also addressed the issue of water access, highlighting that Central Asia loses 40% of its irrigation water annually due to filtration losses and over 50% of its drinking water in distribution networks. “Modernising irrigation systems and implementing water-saving technologies are key,” he added.
“Uzbekistan’s economy is growing at an average rate of 5%, which is much faster than most of the world’s nations and emerging economies. The number of companies with foreign capital has nearly tripled. These figures show Uzbekistan’s growing economic appeal. The largest population in the region provides a solid foundation for rapid industrial growth,” he said.
In conclusion, Podguzov expressed the EDB’s readiness to collaborate with the AIIB and other MDBs, outlining seven promising areas for MDB cooperation: mobilising capital, capital markets, promoting local currency financing, project expertise, joint research projects, joint or coordinated technical assistance and joint implementation of cross-border projects.
