Uzbekistan to launch corruption and shadow economy ratings of government agencies and regions from 2021

The rating aims to objectively evaluate the country’s reforms in combating corruption and the shadow economy, the press service of the Center informed.

From 2021, the center will announce the results of this rating annually, assessing the personal responsibility of all managers.

As part of the ranking, a survey will be conducted among the population in all regions of the Republic.

“So far, Uzbekistan conducted several studies to identify corruption problems. However, all of these estimates were mainly at the republican level, while those that were conducted on the sectorial or regional level were isolated and did not allow to measure the problem in time,” the expert, Bakhtishod Khamidov, said.

He said that the reform process requires the identification of corruption in specific sectors and regions, as corruption is a major factor in their failure.

“The country is now taking comprehensive measures to reduce the level of the shadow economy by creating additional conditions for businesses. In particular, the foreign exchange market has been liberalized, and a new tax system has been introduced, and as a result, the share of the shadow economy has dropped from 20% to 6% in the last 5 years,” said Utkir Nomozboyev, an employee of the Anti-Corruption Agency. “Uzbekistan has set a target of halving the shadow economy in the next five years. This, of course, requires concrete measures. One such mechanism is increasing the personal responsibility of the leaders in the fight against corruption and the shadow economy.”