Uzbekistan to set up free economic zones in 4 regions - presidential decree
TASHKENT. Jan 14 (Interfax) - Uzbekistan will set up free economic zones in the Samarkand, Bukhara, Fargona, and Xorazm regions, in line with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's decree.
The free economic zones will be called Urgut, Gijduvon, Qoqon, and Hazorasp, the presidential office told Interfax on Friday.
The new free economic zones will be set up "with the purpose of providing favorable conditions for attracting foreign and domestic investments in the establishment of modern production facilities specializing in high-level processing of mineral and agricultural resources and producing competitive products with a high value added that can be in demand on foreign markets, and also for comprehensive and efficient employment of production and resource potential of these regions and the establishment of new jobs on this basis," it said.
Local government bodies along with relevant agencies have been given one month to determine the boundaries of such zones and ensure the allocation of plots of land to be included in them.
The new free economic zones will function for 30 years, with the option of extending this term. During this period, these zones will be subject to special tax, customs, and foreign currency regulations.
The Uzbek government has been given one month to set up administrations of the free economic zones, which will be in charge of distributing previously approved investment projects and organizing the issuance of all the necessary permissions to connect to the engineering and communication infrastructure based on the one-stop shop principle.
The administrations will be exempted from taxes and other mandatory duties to state funds during the entire period of the free economic zones functioning.
It had been reported earlier that Mirziyoyev had signed a decree at the end of October on standardizing customs and tax privileges and preferences for operators in the existing and newly-established free economic zones. These privileges and preferences will be granted for a period ranging from three to ten years depending on the volume of investments.
The operators in the newly-established free economic zones will be exempted from customs duties, a number of taxes and mandatory contributions to special state funds. Entities investing from $300,000 to $3 million will be granted such privileges for three years, from $3 million to $5 million for five years, and from $5 million to $10 million for seven years.
Those investing more than $10 million will be exempted from taxes and duties for ten years and would be subject to a 50% lower income tax and unified tax payment over the next five years.
In addition, the free economic zone operators will be exempted from customs duties on imported commodities, materials, and components during the entire period of operation of such zones.
Uzbekistan currently operates three free economic zones, i.e. Navoiy set up in December 2008, Angren in the Tashkent region set up in April 2012, and Jizzax in the central part of the country established in March 2013.
The said free economic zones have implemented 50 projects worth in total $395 million in the textile, chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and electronic industries and in the construction materials sector.
