Measures to support sustainable enterprise operations reviewed

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed measures to enhance the sustainability of manufacturing enterprises and address pressing challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

Large-scale efforts are underway in the country to develop entrepreneurship, support investment projects, and create new production capacities. At the same time, a key priority remains the full utilization of existing industrial capacities, ensuring the stable operation of commissioned enterprises, and increasing their production and export potential.

At the presentation, the results of a study on enterprises that, for various reasons, are operating below capacity or have experienced a decline in revenue were examined. Such cases are primarily observed in the textile, construction, food processing, petrochemical, and electrical engineering industries, among others.

It was noted that the work of such enterprises is adversely affected by factors including insufficient working capital, limited access to utility infrastructure, delays in project implementation, worn-out equipment, disruptions in raw material supply chains, and declining product demand.

According to estimates, restoring production and fully utilizing existing capacities could generate an additional 65.6 trillion soums in output and exports.

In this context, a new system will be introduced to provide for an individual assessment of each enterprise’s condition and ensure full capacity utilization. To this end, a Republican Headquarters will be established with the participation of relevant ministries, agencies, and banks. Within two weeks, its representatives will conduct on-site visits to identify operational bottlenecks and take prompt measures to address them.

For enterprises whose operations can be restored, banks and responsible departments will work together to allocate the necessary credit funds, provide working capital, and address infrastructure and raw material supply issues.

The issue of large assets on the balance sheets of banks was also separately addressed.

Currently, 70 such assets, each valued at over 10 billion soums, are on the balance sheets of banks. A task was set to develop a dedicated mechanism to bring these assets into economic circulation, attract suitable investors, and establish production facilities on their basis.

The accounting and evaluation of the effectiveness of projects implemented under investment programs were also considered. It was noted that some enterprises launched in 2021–2025 as part of nearly 17,000 projects do not fully reflect their activities in tax and statistical reporting. Responsible officials were instructed to review each project and ensure proper taxation and accurate reflection in statistical reports.

Specific issues adversely affecting the business environment and generating complaints from the public and business entities, as well as proposals for their resolution, were considered.

In particular, matters related to the placement of signage and brand marks by businesses, certain administrative requirements for food service and retail facilities, labor relations procedures, cashless payments, the application of tax incentives, financial penalties, and excessive documentation in foreign economic activity were discussed.

For example, under the current regulations, in some cases signage displaying a company’s name, type of activity, or trademark is classified as advertising, requiring separate permits and corresponding payments. This creates an additional administrative burden for entrepreneurs and also negatively affects the visibility of retail and service facilities, customer flow, and revenue.

In this regard, it was proposed not to classify information about a business entity’s name and type of activity displayed on a building as advertising, and to abolish the requirement to obtain corresponding permits. An initiative was also put forward to introduce phased design standards for the placement of advertising and informational signage, taking into account proposals from entrepreneurs, and to simplify procedures for placing trademarks on vehicles owned by legal entities.

It was also proposed to simplify the procedure for refunding part of the value-added tax for food service enterprises, and, for certain retail, food service, and service sector facilities, to ease procedures related to environmental assessment and compensation payments. In addition, it was proposed to specify certain procedures in labor relations between employer and employee.

Particular attention was paid to digitalization and the expansion of cashless payments. Given that payments for a number of goods and services are increasingly shifting to cashless form, the need was noted to make such payments as convenient as possible for citizens and businesses by developing banking infrastructure and improving the system of commissions and cashback refunds.

It was proposed to introduce the possibility of commission-free money transfers between bank cards of the same individual, to expand convenient forms of cashless payments for the population, and to create opportunities for the prompt payment of cashback based on cash register receipts in the areas of food service and the sale of alcohol, tobacco products, and fuel. It was also proposed to review the costs associated with SMS notifications of the anti-fraud system implemented to ensure the security of bank card transactions, and to consider alternatives such as mobile application notifications or biometric identification.

In the sphere of tax administration and financial penalties, it was proposed to eliminate disputed situations arising from the application of tax incentives and to introduce a rule under which penalties for tax arrears do not exceed the principal amount of the debt. In addition, it was proposed to prevent abuse of the system for reporting the non-issuance of receipts and to improve the procedure for suspending a VAT payer’s certificate.

To simplify foreign economic activity, proposals were made to reduce duplicate documents in the import process, create more convenient procedures for entrepreneurs to open trading houses, branches, and representative offices abroad, and to effectively use the opportunities of “Uzexpocentre” to promote national products in international markets.

The Head of State emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship, simplify control and regulatory mechanisms, and ensure that digitalization serves not as an additional burden on businesses, but as a tool that enhances convenience and supports the activities of entrepreneurs.

Responsible officials were given specific instructions to fully utilize existing production capacities, restore the financial stability of enterprises, increase production and export volumes, create new jobs, and expand favorable conditions for entrepreneurs.