Uzbekistan is a partner country for German Development Cooperation. GTZ has been carrying out projects there since the early 1990s on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

After achieving sovereignty, Uzbekistan was forced to adapt its centrally planned economy to the new realities of economic policy. Traditional trading links and production chains collapsed, new national borders cut across transport and trading routes, preventing access to energy and water resources which had previously been used jointly with other Central Asian states. As a primary commodity producer (of cotton, gold, copper, natural gas and petroleum) subject to world market prices, the country was dependent on importing important goods for everyday needs. The aim was to reduce dependence on imports through state control of the foreign exchange market, lending, large-scale state investment and price controls. The planned economy approaches resulted in low economic growth. A restrictive monetary and fiscal policy combined with import restrictions is hampering the country’s economic development. SMEs, trading and services are being held back by state intervention. Foreign investment is low.

In this situation, German-Uzbek Development Cooperation is concentrating on the priority area economic reform and development of the market system (WiRAM). GTZ is supporting the country’s economic transformation process and carrying out supraregional projects in the fields of legal reform, education and environmental protection (e.g. on the Aral Sea).

GTZ has maintained a coordination office in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent since 1992.