As part of the implementation of the Development Strategy, Uzbekistan plans to halve the poverty rate by the end of 2026, Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Kuchkarov said. According to him, the main conditions for achieving this goal are the task of ensuring macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic growth at a high pace.
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction of Uzbekistan Jamshid Kuchkarov held an online meeting of heads of ministries and departments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states on poverty reduction on January 28, the newspaper reported.uz” in the press service of the Ministry.
The head of the Ministry of Economic Development said that in the conditions of the pandemic, the available gold and foreign exchange reserves have largely helped Uzbekistan to attract the necessary resources in a fairly short time and form an anti-crisis fund.
According to him, this allowed the country to carry out work in three key areas: strengthening the healthcare system, improving the social protection system and supporting enterprises in the real sector of the economy.
“Given the nature of the crisis, we had to act by manual methods, by making a list of families and people affected during the pandemic. In parallel, we have been working to create and strengthen the fundamental institutional foundations for the implementation of the new poverty reduction program,” he said.
Jamshid Kuchkarov said that in 2020-2021, the number of families receiving benefits from the state budget increased by 2 times, their share reached almost 15%. In addition, a new criterion for determining the level of poverty has been introduced – minimum consumer spending.
This, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, made it possible to revise the minimum level of social benefits and allowances. For example, in 2021, the minimum pensions and benefits for people with disabilities, as well as benefits for families who have lost a breadwinner, have been increased by 10-50%.
Uzbekistan plans to halve poverty in the country by the end of 2026 as part of the implementation of the 2022-2026 Development Strategy. The main conditions for achieving the set goals are the task of ensuring macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic growth at a high pace. According to him, this will create the basis for entering the top group of middle-income countries by 2030.
In addition, according to the strategy, in order to achieve this goal, it is planned to legalize the employment of 2.5 million informally working citizens, giving them the opportunity to take full advantage of social guarantees and benefits, halve unemployment among women, train more than 700 thousand unemployed women at the expense of the state, increase the employment of people with disabilities by 3 times, adopt a Social Code and take other measures.
To strengthen mutual cooperation in the field of poverty reduction, Jamshid Kuchkarov proposed:
- to establish permanent cooperation of the SCO countries in the field of poverty reduction, including the introduction of a mechanism for the constant exchange of experience in this area and effective methods of poverty reduction;
- to consider the issue of developing and adopting a Framework document on poverty reduction that meets the interests of all SCO countries;
- to organize seminars, master classes, as well as trainings for specialists on poverty reduction in the SCO countries.
At the beginning of 2020, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev stated that 12-15% or 4-5 million of the population of Uzbekistan is in a state of poverty. At the end of December last year, he said that in 2022, the poverty level in Uzbekistan is planned to be reduced by 20-25%.
In early January, minimum consumer spending was increased from 440 thousand to 498 thousand soums per month (from 14.4 thousand to 16.3 thousand soums per day). This indicator is used to determine the poverty line in the country.
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