How they plan to develop the market for foreign shares

There is currently no legal way to purchase such shares in the country. Photo: Roman Fedotov / Kursiv Uzbekistan

At the Capital Market: New Investment Opportunities conference, First Deputy Chairman of the National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), Vyacheslav Pak, noted that there is no legal mechanism in Uzbekistan to purchase shares of foreign companies.

According to him, Uzbek citizens who want to invest in international securities are forced to use questionable platforms like Libertex or Global Trader. This, he said, leads to a growing number of financial pyramids and fraudulent schemes.

Pak stated that a presidential decree has already been issued by Shavkat Mirziyoyev to create a platform on the stock exchange for trading shares of foreign issuers. The next step will be launching a mechanism for issuing bonds in foreign currencies.

«This has already been implemented in Russia, Georgia, and other countries. But here, it’s not allowed. You can take a loan in foreign currency at a bank, but issuing a bond in foreign currency is not permitted,» Pak commented.

He described the current situation as uncompetitive and added that the agency has been working on resolving the issue for over a year.

Kursiv Uzbekistan also reports that the Tashkent Stock Exchange has ambitious plans to expand Uzbekistan’s capital market, focusing on the bond market, individual investment accounts (IIAs) and high-profile IPOs