The program: New Uzbekistan - A Country of Competitive Products will be implemented in Uzbekistan. The program aims to select exporting entities through an open competition, turning them into leading exporters and providing them with comprehensive support. This proposal of the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade was approved by the decree of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on September 30.

As part of the program, the selection of exporting enterprises will be made on the basis of the following criteria:

• they must be registered as a legal entity and have been operating for at least the last two years;
• value of finished products exported during the last 12 months must be over US$ 1 million;
• share of export proceeds in total revenue should exceed 30%;
• types of exported finished products should be more than 2;
• the geography of exports over the past 12 months, excluding neighboring countries, must include more than 2 countries;
• in the volume of exports in the last 12 months, the share of overdue receivables should be less than 5%.

The list of enterprises will be automatically generated on a rating basis on the Unified Exporter Support Portal (www.exportportali.uz) and updated every 6 months.

The program will be implemented in stages through additional support and incentives for 200 exporting enterprises (at the first stage on a rating basis - 50, from January 1, 2023 - 100, from July 1, 2023 - 200).

Exporting enterprises included in the program, on the basis of their application, shall be fully refunded in fast track within 7 days of the excess part of the tax resulting from the application of zero-rate VAT when implementation of export and equivalent operations.

When obtaining a loan to refill working capital, commercial banks are recommended to accept export contracts as collateral.

At the expense of the Export Support Fund will provide these enterprises with financial assistance, based on the volume of exports carried out over the past 12 months to finance pre-export and export trade operations, in the amount of:

• up to 1 million dollars - for exporters with export value of 1 million to 5 million dollars;
• up to 2 million dollars - with export value of 5 million to 10 million dollars;
• up to 3 million dollars - with export value of 10 million to 15 million dollars;
• up to 4 million dollars - with export value of 15 million to 20 million dollars;
• up to 5 million dollars - with export value of more than 20 million dollars;
• for implementation of one international standard and obtaining a certificate, financial assistance is provided in the amount of not more than 30 thousand dollars;
• foreign consultants are involved in business processes, increasing the volume of exports and conducting marketing research.

The Government Commission on Foreign Trade, Investments, Development of Local Industry and Technical Regulation, together with the Council of Ministers of Karakalpakstan, khokimiyats of regions and Tashkent, was instructed to approve by November 1 a program of measures to promote the entry of potential 100 local enterprises from each region to foreign markets on the basis of the principle “from entrepreneur to exporter.