Building a New Uzbekistan: the results of the first stage of reforms and the tasks of further progress

Since 2016, Uzbekistan has passed a large-scale path of fundamental transformation, which became possible thanks to the reforms initiated by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Both inside the country and abroad, there is an expert consensus today that the current Uzbekistan and the Uzbekistan that was six years ago are two completely different phenomena in terms of their qualitative indicators. Uzbekistan 2022 is a dynamic, open to new trends and constantly evolving member of the world community, which not only accepts and adapts the achievements of modern world trends, but also acts from a proactive position, forming at least a regional agenda. There are four directions that most clearly demonstrate the philosophy of development of the New Uzbekistan.

Central Asia is the main priority of Uzbekistan's foreign policy
The first recognized achievement of the reforms can be considered an impressive breakthrough in relations with the countries of Central Asia. In fact, we can talk about the opening of a new era in Uzbekistan's relations with its closest neighbors. Moreover, it was done in the shortest possible time, which can be included in textbooks on the art of diplomacy.
First of all, it is necessary to note the breakthrough in relations with Tajikistan, which was officially secured by the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement and had a positive impact on ordinary people, since a visa-free regime was introduced between the countries, facilitating travel of citizens and humanitarian contacts. Noticeable progress has been recorded in the issue of demarcation and delimitation of the Uzbek-Tajik border, as well as in a constructive dialogue on water use issues.
In turn, a Declaration on strategic partnership, strengthening friendship, good-neighborliness and trust was signed with Kyrgyzstan. The parties have intensified cooperation on border demarcation and organization of transit automobile and multimodal cargo transportation on the route China - Kyrgyzstan - Uzbekistan- Turkmenistan. Productive work is underway on the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway construction project, the implementation of which will lead to a huge increase in transit cargo transportation.
Bilateral cooperation is developing in the field of water use. An example is the concluded Agreement on the interstate use of the Orto-Tokoy (Kasansay) reservoir in the Ala-Buka district of the Jalal-Abad region of the Kyrgyz Republic.
In relations with Kazakhstan in the period 2016-2022, there was a strengthening of fraternal and good-neighborly ties, which reached a fundamentally new level. The Declaration on Allied Relations between the republics was signed on December 6, 2021. The document expresses the intention of the parties to establish the Supreme Interstate Council, the Council of Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation and the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The relations of friendship, good-neighborliness and strategic partnership with Turkmenistan have also been developed, which were given a new impetus by the agreements reached during the visit of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Ashgabat in April 2021 and President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov to Tashkent in July 2022.
One of the key indicators is the growth of mutual trade in Central Asia. In 2017-2019, the total volume of trade turnover amounted to 5,234 billion dollars, which brought Central Asia to the third place among the leading foreign trade partners of Uzbekistan after China and Russia. Taking into account the positive basis laid down in recent years, it can be predicted that in the near future Central Asia will become the largest export-import direction of Uzbekistan's foreign economic policy.
The growing cooperation in the field of regional security can be considered an indicator of increased trust between the countries of the region, as evidenced by the military exercises held in 2021 with Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, as well as cooperation between Uzbekistan and Central Asian countries within the framework of international organizations such as the UN, CIS and SCO. An example is the resolution unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly declaring the Aral Sea region a zone of environmental innovation and technology. The initiative of the resolution belongs to Uzbekistan, and it was co-sponsored by 50 states, including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The unconditional merit of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is his initiation of the format of Consultative meetings of the heads of Central Asian states, which has dramatically increased the level of consolidation of the region.
Investments in human capital - the basis for the formation of the third Renaissance
An important component of the reforms is their focus on changing people's thinking, since it is they who create the New Uzbekistan. The quality of human capital is the cornerstone of any modernization and economic success. However, this should not be based on dry formulas and reasoning, but, above all, an idea on the basis of which a strategy of action is being built.
The idea of the third Renaissance, proposed by the President of Uzbekistan, is addressed to the present and the future. A new scientific and technological revolution is taking place in the world on the basis of advanced knowledge in the field of information and communication technologies, which will determine the economy and well-being of peoples, their competitiveness in the XXI century. For Uzbekistan, this is a challenge and at the same time a historic chance to enter the vanguard of global development. However, this can be done only within the framework of the third Renaissance, which should be based on the education system.
Since the long-term goal is clear, the education reform in accordance with it has taken on a systemic character. First of all, increased attention has been paid to preschool education, since it is at an early age that the fundamental foundations of thinking, love of knowledge, moral and aesthetic ideas are laid. To achieve these goals, the Ministry of Preschool Education was established in 2017, and in 2019 the Concept of development of the preschool education system of the Republic of Uzbekistan until 2030 was adopted. As a result of the measures taken, by 2020, the coverage of children with preschool education has increased several times compared to the indicator of 2015.
In his Message to the Oliy Majlis in December 2020, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev set a goal to increase the coverage of preschool education to 75 percent by the end of 2023. Two thousand non-state kindergartens should be created for subsidies allocated from the budget of 600 billion soums. The share of the private sector in the sphere should also grow to 25 percent. Special attention is paid to the system of free preparation for school and preschool education for children with disabilities.
In parallel, measures are being implemented to improve the quality of school education. Since 2022, a new stage of reforms of the school education system has been launched, which includes several areas of methodological, institutional and infrastructural nature.
Firstly, it is a teacher retraining program based on new methods and their implementation in 20 percent of schools in each district and region of the country. The amount of funding is set at $ 100 million. Measures are being taken to improve the status of teachers in society, as well as their incomes. The reforms will affect school principals: from the new academic year, a system of their certification is being introduced, on the basis of which candidates for this position will be selected. Secondly, the problem of overcrowded schools, their repair and equipping with modern computer equipment and high-speed Internet is being solved. Thirdly, it is planned to organize schools with a focus on natural and exact sciences on the basis of 193 educational institutions. Fourth, a new concept is being developed to radically improve the spiritual atmosphere in schools.
The higher education system is undergoing serious transformations. The Government creates an appropriate educational infrastructure and contributes to the transformation of the educational market into a driver of economic growth and strengthening of the scientific and human resources base. As of 2022, there are 162 universities operating in Uzbekistan. At the same time, 25 of them were non-state universities, and the number of foreign universities and branches reached 30. In general, the coverage of higher education has increased from 28 to 38 percent.
The principles of providing equal and high-quality education for all, as well as gender equality, are actively implemented in the higher education system. The number of grants for girls from low-income families for admission to universities has been doubled. In addition, measures are being implemented in the field of providing academic and managerial independence to state universities. So far, 35 universities have received academic and financial independence, but this list is planned to be expanded.

New Uzbekistan - a welfare state
A distinctive feature of the reforms are their pronounced social orientation, the desire to become closer to a person, his needs, to help people adapt to the rapidly changing socio-economic conditions as a result of the reforms and to create an effective social protection system. It was thanks to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev that the topic of poverty was brought up for public discussion and began to largely determine the country's social policy strategies. For the first time, the head of state touched upon it in a Message to parliament on January 24, 2020, stating: low-income segments of the population make up 12-15 percent, or four to five million people, of the total population.
It was from that moment that the development of integrated approaches to solving the problem of poverty reduction began. First of all, the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction of the Republic of Uzbekistan was created, the position of Deputy Prime Minister for financial and Economic issues and poverty reduction appeared in the structure of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In turn, the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics has begun to calculate the minimum consumer spending of the population based on the results of household surveys, which will serve as an indicator in determining the poverty line in the country and a guideline for the implementation of appropriate measures. In addition, together with experts from the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program, a draft poverty reduction strategy in the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2021-2030 has been developed to determine the goals of poverty reduction in the medium and long term.
The following phrase of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev from his speech at the video conference on measures aimed at reducing poverty through the development of entrepreneurship, held on February 27, 2020, well illustrates the essence of an integrated approach to combating poverty: "Poverty reduction does not mean an increase in wages or benefits, mass issuance of loans. First of all, it is necessary to train the population in professions, improve financial literacy, encourage people to engage in entrepreneurship, improve infrastructure, quality of education and treatment, and introduce a system of targeted benefits."
Such an understanding of the problem of poverty reduction determines the logic of the measures taken today, which focus on creating jobs, improving the skills of employees, training professions and supporting people who express a desire to open their own small or family business.
An integrated approach also includes targeted support for socially vulnerable segments of the population. It is worth highlighting such initiatives as the creation of "iron", "women's" and "youth" notebooks, assistance to those in need through the Unified Register of Social Protection. Thanks to the measures taken, the number of families receiving social pensions and benefits has doubled.
It is impossible to imagine a welfare state without creating a favorable living environment for people, developed local infrastructure and providing citizens with affordable housing. A lot has been done in Uzbekistan in these areas in recent years. It is possible to highlight the programs "Rim Mahalla" and "Rim kishlok". About the social dimension of these programs, the President said in his congratulation to the workers and activists of the mahalla system of Uzbekistan: "If the mahalla is landscaped, the whole country will be landscaped. If the mahalla changes, the whole society will change."
Also, during the implementation of reforms, measures are being taken to provide low-income citizens with housing, which positively affects the situation with solving the problem of social inequality. Not only is there active construction of new houses in cities and rural areas within the framework of the affordable housing program, but preferential mortgage loans are also provided on the basis of the Presidential Decree "On additional measures to provide housing to the population through mortgage loans based on market principles" dated December 9, 2021. Also, from March 1, 2021, a service for issuing subsidies for low-income and citizens in need of better housing conditions began to operate in Uzbekistan.
Human rights as a political vector of State reforms
As the experience of successful countries shows, it is difficult to imagine the reform of society aimed at modernization, socio-economic and scientific breakthrough without its liberalization. So, first of all, a direct dialogue with the people was initiated in Uzbekistan, that is, a course to reduce the so-called distance of power, which made it possible to receive popular support for reforms and involve citizens in discussing the processes of generating ideas and proposals, exerting direct influence on decision-making. It was, in fact, a new experience for modern Uzbek society, which made it possible to release the stored powerful creative potential.
Direct dialogue with the people means the creation of free information platforms in the form of mass media and social networks, where people can freely express their opinions and establish a direct dialogue with deputies and heads of state bodies. All this is one of the attributes of modern democracy. The value and importance of freedom of speech and the media were highlighted by the President of Uzbekistan in a congratulatory message sent to press and media workers on June 27, 2022, where the head of state noted that in the democratic state we are building, freedom of speech and the press will always be protected by the Constitution, laws and the President of the country.
Among the most important achievements of the reforms are the adoption of the National Strategy of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Human Rights, the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the rejection of the "black list" of suspected extremists, the reform of the institution of registration and simplification of the procedure for granting citizenship. A recognized achievement of Uzbekistan was the statement of the International Labor Organization that Uzbekistan managed to exclude forced and child labor from the production cycle in cotton growing in 2021, as a result of which the Cotton Campaign coalition announced the lifting of the global boycott that lasted ten years from Uzbek cotton, thereby creating conditions for the entry of leading world clothing brands into the textile industry of Uzbekistan and retailers.
The achievement in the field of human rights protection is the adoption of the Strategy for Achieving Gender Equality in the Republic of Uzbekistan until 2030 and the establishment of a Commission on Gender Equality in the country. Women are increasingly taking part in the political life of the country. As the results of the 2019 parliamentary elections showed, women made up 32 percent of all elected deputies.
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Uzbekistan has entered a new trajectory of development, and the socio-political, economic, educational and scientific environment has become much more complex and multifaceted, which increases the relevance of permanent analysis of ongoing processes, rapid adjustments, creative search for new sources of growth and management improvement. Therefore, the facts of the adoption of the Development Strategy of the New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026, the initiation of the process of amending the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan and their nationwide discussion look natural. The further evolution of the philosophy of reforms is also justified, where the paradigm "man - society - state" becomes the key concept.
The main goal of the Development Strategy is to build a people's and humane state in which the legitimate interests and well-being of every citizen are ensured, regardless of their nationality, language and religion, and a free civil society continues to develop.
This goal is closely connected with the spiritual enrichment of society based on the concept of "New Uzbekistan - an enlightened society", as well as the principles of the rule of law and fair social policy, which will become the key principles of the work of state bodies. At the same time, priority attention is still given to the development of the economy, private business, human capital and attracting foreign investment.
The adoption of the New Uzbekistan Development Strategy for 2022-2026 and the work on amendments to the Constitution clearly show that the reforms have become irreversible, new large-scale goals and objectives are being set, positive results from the implementation of which should be felt by every citizen of Uzbekistan, as well as society and the state as a whole in the coming years.

Bobur Bekmurodov.
Chairman of the National
movement "Yuksalish".