News

On May 25, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on ensuring sustainable functioning and consistent development of the transport industry.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, transport links around the world have practically ceased. The carriers are suffering serious losses. For example, civil aviation alone is expected to lose $ 113 billion by the end of this year.

To date, domestic transport companies have suffered a loss of 340 billion soums due to quarantine restrictions. And this figure will increase further until the epidemiological situation stabilizes.

In this regard, the industry is taking a number of measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and provide economic support to enterprises. For example, the joint stock companies Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports most affected by the quarantine were granted a deferral of loans for 122 million dollars and tax breaks for more than 60 billion soums. The Anti-Crisis Fund provided interest-free loans in the amount of USD 50 million as working capital.

The meeting discussed issues of ensuring the sustainable operation of the transport sector in the new conditions.

The Ministry of Transport has been tasked to develop a business model to overcome the consequences of the pandemic for Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports.

Instructions were given to enter the market of freight traffic along the Europe-China route, to optimize current and investment costs.

The issues of attracting new air carriers to the civil aviation market in order to increase competition, transfer of Uzbekistan Airways to the management of a prestigious foreign company were considered.

It was announced plans to announce a tender for the modernization of airports, transfer the activities of the international airports of Andijan, Bukhara, Urgench and Karshi into a public-private partnership.

During the pandemic, the demand for rail transportation increased sharply. In particular, the share of railways in international cargo transportation increased from 75 to 87 percent. This is a good opportunity to increase the number of clients by improving the quality of services and reducing costs.

However, the deterioration of fixed assets in the system of JSC "Uzbekiston Temir Yullari", the abundance of non-core assets in the structure of the company complicates the development of the main activity.

In this regard, instructions were given on the optimization of non-core enterprises within the "Uzbekiston Temir Yullari", improvement of tariff setting mechanisms, renewal of the carriage and locomotive fleet.

At the meeting, attention was paid to the support of enterprises engaged in international transportation of goods by road.

As a result of reforms over the past three years, the number of vehicles used in international cargo transportation in our country has tripled, the share of domestic enterprises in foreign trade - from 37 to 48 percent.

Measures have been identified to further increase the number of domestic carriers and increase their share in foreign trade to 60 percent. It was noted that one freight transport can provide jobs for up to five people, which can create 30 thousand new jobs in the industry.

Instructions were given on the modernization of buses serving internal routes in the Republic of Karakalpakstan and regions, the stable provision of such enterprises with financial resources.

The head of state touched upon the issue of internal roads, noting their poor condition and people's dissatisfaction with their quality. The need was emphasized to reconstruct 80 thousand kilometers of internal roads, to introduce the "user pays" principle, which is widely used throughout the world.

It has been determined that a tender will be announced for the Tashkent-Andijan toll road project, including the construction of an alternative tunnel on the Kamchik pass.

Responsible persons presented reports on projects being implemented in the transport sector.

Source: president.uz