UZBEKISTAN:
most recent changes in business
laws
1. Uzbekistan to establish Institute of Business Ombudsperson under the Parliament of Uzbekistan.
2. The Highest Economic Court to implement systems for the audio- and video- recording of court hearings, and to publish court decisions on the official website (previously, not publicly available).
3. Uzbekistan to adopt a special law for combating corruption in the country (currently, the Lower Chamber of the Parliament adopted the proposed law in the second reading).
4. Economic courts to be empowered impose administrative sanctions on commercial entities and their staff.
PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 4848, 5 OCTOBER 2016
“On additional measures for ensuring the fast development of entrepreneurship activity, all possible protection of private property and quality improvement of business climate”
1. Uzbekistan to ban unscheduled inspections of commercial entities, subject to minor exceptions.
2. Uzbekistan to cease counter inspections, including those initiated for criminal cases.
3. Uzbekistan to liberalize sanctions for administrative and criminal offences in the domain of financial or economic crimes.
4. State regulators to make an inventory of and publish normative documents relating to the technical regulatory of industries on their official web-sites for free-of-charge access to the mass.
PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 4848, 5 OCTOBER 2016 (continued)
“On additional measures for ensuring the fast development of entrepreneurship activity, all possible protection of private property and quality improvement of business climate”
1. Starting from 1 April 2017, Uzbekistan to start to register commercial entities online.
2. The online system will be working 24/7 via the Internet, and will be integrated to the Unified Portal of Interactive State Services.
3. Note: Exceptions shall be applied to banks, credit bureaus, their representative offices and branches, and to NGOs.
PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 2646, 28 OCTOBER 2016
“On development of the system of state registration of commercial entities”
1. Uzbekistan to establish unified legal regime for the acting free economic zones (i.e. Djizak, Angren and Navoi), such as in relation to the provision of tax and customs privileges.
2. Directions of the zones will be set free from taxes and compulsory payments to state budget and funds.
PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 4853, 26 OCTOBER 2016
“On additional measures for activation and expansion of activities of free economic zones”
1. Uzbekistan to create free new economic zones for a term of 30 years: namely
“Urgut” (Samarkand region), “Gijduvan” (Bukhara region), “Qoqand”
(Ferghana region) and “Hazarasp” (Khorezm region), attracting foreign investment and advanced technologies.
2. State Committee of Uzbekistan on land resources, geodesy, cartography and state cadastre in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and regional administrations will determine concrete borders of the new zones.
3. Note: The draft Presidential Decree may be amended, edited or rejected.
DRAFT PRESIDENTIAL DECREE (available for online public discussion)
“On creation of free economic zones ‘Urgut’, ‘Gijduvan’,
‘Qoqand’ and ‘Hazarasp’”
DRAFT PRESIDENTIAL RESOLUTION (available for online public discussion)
“On priority directions of foreign currency policy”
1. Prices to be set in national currency.
2. The payment of profits, dividends and other income in a foreign currency would be allowed, provided that the legal entities have enough foreign currency earnings and funds in their accounts and that the shareholders (participants) have made a decision to this effect.
3. The transfer of foreign currencies within the territory of Uzbekistan between individuals using a bank transfer, postal order or payment system would be allowed.
4. Up to USD 10,000 in a foreign currency may be taken outside the country in cash without any restrictions, except for in the cases established by the government’s decisions. It is not clear what cases would be covered by such decisions. Out of this amount, cash (foreign currency) totalling up to USD 2,000 would not be subject to mandatory declaration when taking cash (foreign currency) into/out of Uzbekistan.
5. Non-residents of Uzbekistan (legal entities and individuals) would be entitled to open bank accounts at Uzbek banks and to freely deposit funds in their accounts at their own discretion.
6. Abolishing the mandatory sale of foreign currency earnings by legal entities engaged in foreign trade.
7. Liberalisation policies to be adopted by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan.
8. Cancelling the requirement for a separate license to deal with foreign currencies.
