Further, tourism is back to its pre-pandemic peak, reaching 6.6 million tourists in 2023, just shy of the 6.7 million peak reached in 2019 before the pandemic. We have long believed (and I felt personally, being based in Tashkent) that if it were not for the pandemic, Uzbekistan would be in a much more advanced state of growth. Last year, the country got back in its stride as momentum on various reforms from liberalization of utilities to a focus on capital markets development and attracting more foreign direct investments picked up. Poor government responses globally to COVID-19 slowed Uzbekistan’s growth trajectory. Still the coming years should see an acceleration as we continue to believe there is no reason Uzbekistan won’t become the largest economy in Central Asia within the next two decades, catching up to the raw materials exporting powerhouse (oil, gas, copper, gold, uranium) to the north, Kazakhstan.

Tashkent Stock Exchange marketing

The past few months we have discussed a new capital markets platform that will be launched by a friend of ours and which we plan to highlight next month. In the meantime, on 31^st January 2024, the Tashkent Stock Exchange, in partnership with the State Unitary Enterprise "Information and Resource Center of the Stock Market”, announced the launch of a Telegram bot (similar to a social media channel on WhatsApp) for capital markets information. Having explored the channel, it is quite well built with coverage of all listed companies, company news filings, and analytics. The platform is in Russian, Uzbek, and English and is being marketed locally by the exchange. As financial instruments outside of bank term deposits are not widely held by the Uzbek population, it is encouraging to see the exchange pushing for increased visibility of the capital markets, and which is good timing, in line with the tax incentives for Uzbek investors which was discussed in our December 2023 update.

AFC Uzbekistan Tour 2024

For those interested in visiting Uzbekistan with us, we are planning our third AFC Uzbekistan Tour, which will be held from Sunday 19^th May 2024 to Tuesday 21^st May 2024. We will begin on the 19^th with a day tour of Tashkent, followed by company meetings and site visits on the 20^th and 21^st. If you are interested in joining, please write us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

For further viewing here are some interesting, relevant news links related to Uzbekistan:

Uzbekistan and China upgrade diplomatic ties 

Uzbekistan's population grows by 2.2% in 2023

Iran and Uzbekistan discuss launching preferential trade agreement

Uzbekistan 2024 economic outlook

AFC Uzbekistan Fund Marketing Information as of the end of December 2023

Subscriptions

The next cutoff date for subscriptions will be 23^rd February 2024. If you would like any assistance with the subscription process, please get in touch with us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Best regards,

Scott Osheroff

CIO AFC Uzbekistan Fund

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