Business in Uzbekistan - easy and simple

One of the key tasks facing Uzbekistan today is the implementation of a consistently high growth of the national economy, attracting investments in the regions, and maximizing the entrepreneurial activity among the population. Knowingly, the necessary conditions for this is the creation of a favorable investment climate.

In this regard, a number of reforms are being carried out in the country aimed at simplifying procedures and reducing the time for processing documents and their number.

The costs of obtaining them are also being reduced. In particular, the creation of a new organization – the Public Services Agency under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic, contributed to this.

A new form of public service provision

In less than 2 years, Public service centers have become an effective point of contact between citizens and government bodies. For today 201 of them are opened in the republic – in each district and city center. They provide more than hundred public services to both legal entities and individuals.

More than 30 services are intended for potential investors in various business sectors. Among them are registration and re-registration of business entities, the provision of cadastral services, coordination of project documentation, licensing of various fields of activity and others.

Main tasks of the Agency include in themselves provision of prompt, affordable and transparent public services. The ideal model is a minimum of time and maximum convenience for citizens and businesses, obtaining the necessary documents quickly, without unnecessary red tape and bureaucratic delays.

The Public Services Agency has a key position in the implementation and realization of the reforms facing the aim of renewing republic.

At the center of reforms

Today, special attention is paid for improving the position of Uzbekistan in various prestigious world ratings. For example, the Government and the Head of state have adopted relevant regulatory documents aimed to increase the rating of the state in the annual report “Doing Business”, published by the World Bank.

Rating “Doing Business” consists of 11 estimation indicators. The very first and key indicator for the business sphere is an indicator “Starting a business”.

The first step into the world of entrepreneurship begins with the Public Service Centers - this is the place where the business registration takes place. Therefore, the task of improving positions on this indicator are assigned to Public Services Agency under the Ministry of Justice. According to the results of the Doing-Business-2018 report, Uzbekistan ranks 12 out of 190 position of economic systems in the terms of the indicator of registration of entrepreneurs.

Today, due to creation of a special automated system, it is possible to register a business in the Public services centers in just 15-20 minutes. In addition, this procedure can be performed remotely – online. For stimulating and encouraging citizens to use electronic public services, various benefits and discounts were introduced in making payments. For example, when entity trying to register a business online 90% of the established state fee amount is paid. A huge work is being done in Uzbekistan for simplification the process of doing business.

For instance, the opportunity of opening a bank account simultaneously within the process of state registration of a business in a few minutes is also a good example of the job made in this area. For comparison, earlier this procedure took 1 business day.

For opening a current account, it was necessary to contact one of the branches of a commercial bank and provide a number of documents:

- application for opening a bank account;

- samples of signatures and impressions of seals;

- constituent documents of the enterprise;

- an identity document of a person vested with the right to sign;

- a document confirming registration with the tax authorities;

- certificate of state registration;

- decision on the appointment of the director and accountant.

And only after providing these documents, a bilateral agreement of opening a bank account with the bank can be concluded.

This procedure is greatly simplified by the Public Services Agency. Now it is possible to open a bank account in national and foreign currency simultaneously with the registration of a business entity. The applicant fills out a questionnaire and in the process of state registration selects the desired branch of a commercial bank. At the same time, the conclusion of an agreement of opening a bank account occurs by accepting a public offer through the Automated system of registration and state registration of business entities. In total, this process takes no more than 30 minutes together with the business registration procedure. This service was launched in March of the current year. For this short period, about 10 thousand applications have already been received simultaneously to open a bank account in the process of state registration. 30% of applications were submitted electronically via the fo.birdarcha.uz platform.

For information, in Georgia owing the 2nd place in the Doing business rating by the indicator “Starting a business” a similar system of simultaneous state registration and opening a bank account is introduced. Much work has been done to eliminate the bureaucratic components that have arisen in business registration sphere. For example, on March 1, 2019, the requirement of state bodies and other organizations to stamp the documents or to certify documents with a seal by business entities was canceled. Along with this, measures were taken to eradicate the practice of certifying the corresponding forms and forms with the seal of business entities.

The reliability of a business partner is one of the main conditions for a successful business.

Therefore, based on the best practices of the British organization “Companies House”, an open platform for the all entrepreneurs has been launched as part of a joint project with the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As a result, investors and other business entities have the opportunity to get the necessary information about a future business partner online. Information is available on the name of the company, the date of registration, the size of the authorized capital, as well as names of the founders. It should be noted that now the platform has a global search function for various criteria (by name, location, type of activity, etc.).

Verification of a business partner will help to ensure its integrity and professionalism, thereby allowing entrepreneurs to avoid the facts of fraud and cooperation, which can cause losses.

Soon, information on registered obligations, arrest or other restrictions, leasing obligations will be available on my.gov.uz portal. Today, the Public Services Agency under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan has launched the necessary processes for the speedy implementation of these tasks.

It should also be noted that the mandatory requirements for the size of the authorized capital of a legal entity were canceled. This suggests that now the size of the authorized capital can be limited only by licensing requirements.

The current political situation in the country gives good chances for accelerated development of business and entrepreneurship, successful investment in long-term investment projects. For this purpose, entrepreneurs are provided with the necessary benefits and preferences for the effective conduct of business. Administrative processes are simplified.

The most important reforms already implemented for the benefit of entrepreneurship development in Uzbekistan are listed above. Of course, the work of the Public Services Agency in this direction will continue, and we will try to create the most comfortable environment for creating and running a business.

Public Services Agency under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan