Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev is on a mission to attract foreign investment as part of his "New Uzbekistan" plan with his two-day visit to Germany in May already yielding billions of euros in new deals.

Mirziyoyev’s visit to Germany on May 3 included a meeting with the heads of Germany's leading companies and financial institutions. The meeting saw the attendance of the heads of around 30 of Germany's largest companies and banks, including CLAAS, Knauf, Siemens Energy, and Deutsche Bank.

As of now, more than 60 projects worth €5bn are being implemented in Uzbekistan with German partners. That is more than has been invested in total previously in recent years: the volume of German investments amounted to €4bn before Mirziyoyev visit.

Several new agreements worth €9bn were signed at the Uzbekistan-Germany business forum earlier to enhance technological partnership and develop industrial cooperation in areas such as green energy, transport infrastructure, metallurgy, water supply, agriculture, and more.

The banking and financial sector was not left out, with plans to enhance interaction, particularly on project financing with Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, KfW, and Landesbank.

Mirziyoyev recently kick-started a series of reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment and improving the country's economic prospects.

"A foreign investor should associate Uzbekistan first of all with stability, reliability and predictability. We are ready to create all the conditions for every German businessman to feel free and confident in our country. We can achieve great results by combining Germany’s advanced developments and innovative technologies with Uzbekistan’s resources and human potential," Mirziyoyev noted.

The reforms were “highly significant” to German entrepreneurs as they created conditions for more ambitious and long-term plans of German businesses to carry out investment activities in Uzbekistan. German businesses expressed readiness to expand cooperation in priority areas.

Human rights questions

Despite the positive economic outlook, human rights concerns loom large over Uzbekistan's president where progress has been slower. Mirziyoyev has taken some action on this front, easing press restrictions, allowing some foreign correspondents from the likes of the BBC back into the country, releasing some political prisoners jailed by his predecessor, and most importantly ending the use of child labour to pick cotton.

But his critics would like to see these political reforms go further and faster. The Uzbek president's recent constitutional referendum saw more progress towards liberalism and included improvements in things like gender equality as part of the goal of creating a "New Uzbekistan.” But human rights activists met the reform with scepticism, given the country's track record of human rights abuses and that the amendments in effect give Mirziyoyev another two seven-year terms in office.

Mirziyoyev has already moved to negate those fears by calling for snap elections in June to renew his mandate for reform with the people and is widely expected to be voted back into office with a large majority.

But more could be done. Human Rights Watch has called on German officials to ensure that their talks with Mirziyoyev during his visit prominently feature discussions on human rights issues.

During Mirziyoyev's visit, a few Uzbek activists concerned with human rights assembled outside the Federal Chancellery and chanted slogans against the president. Soon after, a group of people who claimed to support Mirziyoyev showed up and started shouting at the activists to stop, as reported by a journalist from RFE/RL.

Mirziyoyev is hailed for cracking open the door to Uzbekistan's tourism and foreign investment, and a bit of free speech, which was mostly missing during his uncompromising predecessor Islam Karimov’s rule, who passed away in 2016.

However, this slight progress doesn't go as far as allowing political competition yet.

A warm welcome for Mirziyoyev, "should not come at the expense of a frank exchange on human rights concerns," said Hugh Williamson, the Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, ahead of Mirziyoyev's visit to Berlin. Germany has a crucial part to play in pressuring Mirziyoyev to fulfil his numerous reform promises given the bilateral ties between Germany and Uzbekistan, says Williamson.

However, Edda Schlager, a regional correspondent for the German agency Germany Trade & Invest, was reported as saying by RFE/RL that there is still "optimism" for Uzbekistan among German companies familiar with the country’s affairs, a factor that seems to drive the political relationship.

“Uzbekistan is a large market, 35mn [people] with a young population, and reforms regarding privatisation and so on are ongoing. I think German companies are aware of politics, as far as it concerns the business climate and further reforms, but perhaps don’t want to be aware of the rights issues that Uzbekistan still has,” Schlager told RFE/RL.

The Usmanov question

While Uzbekistan has traditionally been close to Russia, Moscow's unprovoked war in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea have put Tashkent in a difficult position. The US has been putting pressure on all the countries in the region to distance themselves from the Kremlin, but that is made difficult by long-standing cultural and economic ties; Russia continues to play a dominant role in both Uzbekistan’s investment and trade portfolios.

Adding to the complexity of the situation is the close relationship between Mirziyoyev's government and Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbekistan-born tycoon who has become a key investor for Tashkent. Usmanov has been a target for Western sanctions, potentially creating a reputational risk for Uzbekistan.

Usmanov has reportedly backed Mirziyoyev's rise to power and has become an influential figure in Uzbekistan's industrial and banking sectors, but so far no allegations made against him have been proven. Der Spiegel reported in November that Uzbekistan and Germany had already held urgent talks over a personal tax income investigation, and that the German ambassador in Tashkent was summoned by the Uzbek Foreign Ministry in the wake of raids on Usmanov's properties.

The German investigation focuses on the allegation that Usmanov avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of personal income tax – a case  that generated a lot of interest in Germany. But in a separate investigation the Berliner Zeitung reported that German prosecutor came up with nothing, has not brought charges and has not released any evidence of any wrong-doing. Moreover, Berliner Zeitung reported it has seen Usmanov’s travel documents that prove he spent less than 182 days in Germany in the period under investigation and so is not liable to pay German income taxes.

“If there is no evidence of Usmanov's German residence in [his luxury German villa] Rottach-Egern or elsewhere in Germany, almost all allegations collapse,” the Berliner Zeitung reported.

In November, Uzbekistan was reportedly pushing the European Union to lift sanctions on Usmanov and his sister, as the Uzbek-Russian tycoon tries to extricate himself from the fallout of Moscow’s Ukraine war, according to a report by the Financial Times.

Usmanov was among 26 Russians subjected to EU sanctions in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with the bloc designating him one of the Russian leader’s “darling oligarchs”.

Following the sanctions, German authorities impounded the Dilbar, the world’s largest superyacht, in March, while properties linked to Usmanov in Germany were raided by police in September.

Building new ties

Despite these concerns, many EU companies are seeking to build closer ties with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries as the region reassesses its

Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev is on a mission to attract foreign investment as part of his "New Uzbekistan" plan with his two-day visit to Germany in May already yielding billions of euros in new deals.

Mirziyoyev’s visit to Germany on May 3 included a meeting with the heads of Germany's leading companies and financial institutions. The meeting saw the attendance of the heads of around 30 of Germany's largest companies and banks, including CLAAS, Knauf, Siemens Energy, and Deutsche Bank.

As of now, more than 60 projects worth €5bn are being implemented in Uzbekistan with German partners. That is more than has been invested in total previously in recent years: the volume of German investments amounted to €4bn before Mirziyoyev visit.

Several new agreements worth €9bn were signed at the Uzbekistan-Germany business forum earlier to enhance technological partnership and develop industrial cooperation in areas such as green energy, transport infrastructure, metallurgy, water supply, agriculture, and more.

The banking and financial sector was not left out, with plans to enhance interaction, particularly on project financing with Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, KfW, and Landesbank.

Mirziyoyev recently kick-started a series of reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment and improving the country's economic prospects.

"A foreign investor should associate Uzbekistan first of all with stability, reliability and predictability. We are ready to create all the conditions for every German businessman to feel free and confident in our country. We can achieve great results by combining Germany’s advanced developments and innovative technologies with Uzbekistan’s resources and human potential," Mirziyoyev noted.

The reforms were “highly significant” to German entrepreneurs as they created conditions for more ambitious and long-term plans of German businesses to carry out investment activities in Uzbekistan. German businesses expressed readiness to expand cooperation in priority areas.

Human rights questions

Despite the positive economic outlook, human rights concerns loom large over Uzbekistan's president where progress has been slower. Mirziyoyev has taken some action on this front, easing press restrictions, allowing some foreign correspondents from the likes of the BBC back into the country, releasing some political prisoners jailed by his predecessor, and most importantly ending the use of child labour to pick cotton.

But his critics would like to see these political reforms go further and faster. The Uzbek president's recent constitutional referendum saw more progress towards liberalism and included improvements in things like gender equality as part of the goal of creating a "New Uzbekistan.” But human rights activists met the reform with scepticism, given the country's track record of human rights abuses and that the amendments in effect give Mirziyoyev another two seven-year terms in office.

Mirziyoyev has already moved to negate those fears by calling for snap elections in June to renew his mandate for reform with the people and is widely expected to be voted back into office with a large majority.

But more could be done. Human Rights Watch has called on German officials to ensure that their talks with Mirziyoyev during his visit prominently feature discussions on human rights issues.

During Mirziyoyev's visit, a few Uzbek activists concerned with human rights assembled outside the Federal Chancellery and chanted slogans against the president. Soon after, a group of people who claimed to support Mirziyoyev showed up and started shouting at the activists to stop, as reported by a journalist from RFE/RL.

Mirziyoyev is hailed for cracking open the door to Uzbekistan's tourism and foreign investment, and a bit of free speech, which was mostly missing during his uncompromising predecessor Islam Karimov’s rule, who passed away in 2016.

However, this slight progress doesn't go as far as allowing political competition yet.

A warm welcome for Mirziyoyev, "should not come at the expense of a frank exchange on human rights concerns," said Hugh Williamson, the Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, ahead of Mirziyoyev's visit to Berlin. Germany has a crucial part to play in pressuring Mirziyoyev to fulfil his numerous reform promises given the bilateral ties between Germany and Uzbekistan, says Williamson.

However, Edda Schlager, a regional correspondent for the German agency Germany Trade & Invest, was reported as saying by RFE/RL that there is still "optimism" for Uzbekistan among German companies familiar with the country’s affairs, a factor that seems to drive the political relationship.

“Uzbekistan is a large market, 35mn [people] with a young population, and reforms regarding privatisation and so on are ongoing. I think German companies are aware of politics, as far as it concerns the business climate and further reforms, but perhaps don’t want to be aware of the rights issues that Uzbekistan still has,” Schlager told RFE/RL.

The Usmanov question

While Uzbekistan has traditionally been close to Russia, Moscow's unprovoked war in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea have put Tashkent in a difficult position. The US has been putting pressure on all the countries in the region to distance themselves from the Kremlin, but that is made difficult by long-standing cultural and economic ties; Russia continues to play a dominant role in both Uzbekistan’s investment and trade portfolios.

Adding to the complexity of the situation is the close relationship between Mirziyoyev's government and Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbekistan-born tycoon who has become a key investor for Tashkent. Usmanov has been a target for Western sanctions, potentially creating a reputational risk for Uzbekistan.

Usmanov has reportedly backed Mirziyoyev's rise to power and has become an influential figure in Uzbekistan's industrial and banking sectors, but so far no allegations made against him have been proven. Der Spiegel reported in November that Uzbekistan and Germany had already held urgent talks over a personal tax income investigation, and that the German ambassador in Tashkent was summoned by the Uzbek Foreign Ministry in the wake of raids on Usmanov's properties.

The German investigation focuses on the allegation that Usmanov avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of personal income tax – a case  that generated a lot of interest in Germany. But in a separate investigation the Berliner Zeitung reported that German prosecutor came up with nothing, has not brought charges and has not released any evidence of any wrong-doing. Moreover, Berliner Zeitung reported it has seen Usmanov’s travel documents that prove he spent less than 182 days in Germany in the period under investigation and so is not liable to pay German income taxes.

“If there is no evidence of Usmanov's German residence in [his luxury German villa] Rottach-Egern or elsewhere in Germany, almost all allegations collapse,” the Berliner Zeitung reported.

In November, Uzbekistan was reportedly pushing the European Union to lift sanctions on Usmanov and his sister, as the Uzbek-Russian tycoon tries to extricate himself from the fallout of Moscow’s Ukraine war, according to a report by the Financial Times.

Usmanov was among 26 Russians subjected to EU sanctions in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with the bloc designating him one of the Russian leader’s “darling oligarchs”.

Following the sanctions, German authorities impounded the Dilbar, the world’s largest superyacht, in March, while properties linked to Usmanov in Germany were raided by police in September.

Building new ties

Despite these concerns, many EU companies are seeking to build closer ties with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries as the region reassesses its relationship with Russia in light of the war in Ukraine.

Mirziyoyev was invited by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a staunch supporter of his reforms and one of the most prominent Western politicians to visit Tashkent in recent years.

After his visit to Germany, Mirziyoyev is scheduled to travel to Italy next month, as Western sanctions-related activity in Central Asia picks up.

However, Mirziyoyev is hoping for a pragmatic approach from the Italians, in order to establish a long-term partnership with a founding member of the EU and to secure Tashkent's further international political legitimacy.

The focus of the talks will again likely be on security and the economy, and human rights are unlikely to be a major topic of discussion.

Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev is on a mission to attract foreign investment as part of his "New Uzbekistan" plan with his two-day visit to Germany in May already yielding billions of euros in new deals.

Mirziyoyev’s visit to Germany on May 3 included a meeting with the heads of Germany's leading companies and financial institutions. The meeting saw the attendance of the heads of around 30 of Germany's largest companies and banks, including CLAAS, Knauf, Siemens Energy, and Deutsche Bank.

As of now, more than 60 projects worth €5bn are being implemented in Uzbekistan with German partners. That is more than has been invested in total previously in recent years: the volume of German investments amounted to €4bn before Mirziyoyev visit.

Several new agreements worth €9bn were signed at the Uzbekistan-Germany business forum earlier to enhance technological partnership and develop industrial cooperation in areas such as green energy, transport infrastructure, metallurgy, water supply, agriculture, and more.

The banking and financial sector was not left out, with plans to enhance interaction, particularly on project financing with Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, KfW, and Landesbank.

Mirziyoyev recently kick-started a series of reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment and improving the country's economic prospects.

"A foreign investor should associate Uzbekistan first of all with stability, reliability and predictability. We are ready to create all the conditions for every German businessman to feel free and confident in our country. We can achieve great results by combining Germany’s advanced developments and innovative technologies with Uzbekistan’s resources and human potential," Mirziyoyev noted.

The reforms were “highly significant” to German entrepreneurs as they created conditions for more ambitious and long-term plans of German businesses to carry out investment activities in Uzbekistan. German businesses expressed readiness to expand cooperation in priority areas.

Human rights questions

Despite the positive economic outlook, human rights concerns loom large over Uzbekistan's president where progress has been slower. Mirziyoyev has taken some action on this front, easing press restrictions, allowing some foreign correspondents from the likes of the BBC back into the country, releasing some political prisoners jailed by his predecessor, and most importantly ending the use of child labour to pick cotton.

But his critics would like to see these political reforms go further and faster. The Uzbek president's recent constitutional referendum saw more progress towards liberalism and included improvements in things like gender equality as part of the goal of creating a "New Uzbekistan.” But human rights activists met the reform with scepticism, given the country's track record of human rights abuses and that the amendments in effect give Mirziyoyev another two seven-year terms in office.

Mirziyoyev has already moved to negate those fears by calling for snap elections in June to renew his mandate for reform with the people and is widely expected to be voted back into office with a large majority.

But more could be done. Human Rights Watch has called on German officials to ensure that their talks with Mirziyoyev during his visit prominently feature discussions on human rights issues.

During Mirziyoyev's visit, a few Uzbek activists concerned with human rights assembled outside the Federal Chancellery and chanted slogans against the president. Soon after, a group of people who claimed to support Mirziyoyev showed up and started shouting at the activists to stop, as reported by a journalist from RFE/RL.

Mirziyoyev is hailed for cracking open the door to Uzbekistan's tourism and foreign investment, and a bit of free speech, which was mostly missing during his uncompromising predecessor Islam Karimov’s rule, who passed away in 2016.

However, this slight progress doesn't go as far as allowing political competition yet.

A warm welcome for Mirziyoyev, "should not come at the expense of a frank exchange on human rights concerns," said Hugh Williamson, the Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, ahead of Mirziyoyev's visit to Berlin. Germany has a crucial part to play in pressuring Mirziyoyev to fulfil his numerous reform promises given the bilateral ties between Germany and Uzbekistan, says Williamson.

However, Edda Schlager, a regional correspondent for the German agency Germany Trade & Invest, was reported as saying by RFE/RL that there is still "optimism" for Uzbekistan among German companies familiar with the country’s affairs, a factor that seems to drive the political relationship.

“Uzbekistan is a large market, 35mn [people] with a young population, and reforms regarding privatisation and so on are ongoing. I think German companies are aware of politics, as far as it concerns the business climate and further reforms, but perhaps don’t want to be aware of the rights issues that Uzbekistan still has,” Schlager told RFE/RL.

The Usmanov question

While Uzbekistan has traditionally been close to Russia, Moscow's unprovoked war in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea have put Tashkent in a difficult position. The US has been putting pressure on all the countries in the region to distance themselves from the Kremlin, but that is made difficult by long-standing cultural and economic ties; Russia continues to play a dominant role in both Uzbekistan’s investment and trade portfolios.

Adding to the complexity of the situation is the close relationship between Mirziyoyev's government and Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbekistan-born tycoon who has become a key investor for Tashkent. Usmanov has been a target for Western sanctions, potentially creating a reputational risk for Uzbekistan.

Usmanov has reportedly backed Mirziyoyev's rise to power and has become an influential figure in Uzbekistan's industrial and banking sectors, but so far no allegations made against him have been proven. Der Spiegel reported in November that Uzbekistan and Germany had already held urgent talks over a personal tax income investigation, and that the German ambassador in Tashkent was summoned by the Uzbek Foreign Ministry in the wake of raids on Usmanov's properties.

The German investigation focuses on the allegation that Usmanov avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of personal income tax – a case  that generated a lot of interest in Germany. But in a separate investigation the Berliner Zeitung reported that German prosecutor came up with nothing, has not brought charges and has not released any evidence of any wrong-doing. Moreover, Berliner Zeitung reported it has seen Usmanov’s travel documents that prove he spent less than 182 days in Germany in the period under investigation and so is not liable to pay German income taxes.

“If there is no evidence of Usmanov's German residence in [his luxury German villa] Rottach-Egern or elsewhere in Germany, almost all allegations collapse,” the Berliner Zeitung reported.

In November, Uzbekistan was reportedly pushing the European Union to lift sanctions on Usmanov and his sister, as the Uzbek-Russian tycoon tries to extricate himself from the fallout of Moscow’s Ukraine war, according to a report by the Financial Times.

Usmanov was among 26 Russians subjected to EU sanctions in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with the bloc designating him one of the Russian leader’s “darling oligarchs”.

Following the sanctions, German authorities impounded the Dilbar, the world’s largest superyacht, in March, while properties linked to Usmanov in Germany were raided by police in September.

Building new ties

Despite these concerns, many EU companies are seeking to build closer ties with Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries as the region reassesses its relationship with Russia in light of the war in Ukraine.

Mirziyoyev was invited by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a staunch supporter of his reforms and one of the most prominent Western politicians to visit Tashkent in recent years.

After his visit to Germany, Mirziyoyev is scheduled to travel to Italy next month, as Western sanctions-related activity in Central Asia picks up.

However, Mirziyoyev is hoping for a pragmatic approach from the Italians, in order to establish a long-term partnership with a founding member of the EU and to secure Tashkent's further international political legitimacy.

The focus of the talks will again likely be on security and the economy, and human rights are unlikely to be a major topic of discussion.

 

with Russia in light of the war in Ukraine.

Mirziyoyev was invited by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a staunch supporter of his reforms and one of the most prominent Western politicians to visit Tashkent in recent years.

After his visit to Germany, Mirziyoyev is scheduled to travel to Italy next month, as Western sanctions-related activity in Central Asia picks up.

However, Mirziyoyev is hoping for a pragmatic approach from the Italians, in order to establish a long-term partnership with a founding member of the EU and to secure Tashkent's further international political legitimacy.

The focus of the talks will again likely be on security and the economy, and human rights are unlikely to be a major topic of discussion.