Uzbekistan cannot maintain high economic growth rates while keeping to sell oil and gas, said Shavkat Mirziyoyev at a meeting with business leaders today.

“We do not have abundant resources. And we need those that we have, as the population increases. We can’t afford to sell. We are doing a lot in this area. This year in winter the population will feel the work done. I’ll say it again: we cannot ensure high economic growth by selling oil and gas,” he said.

According to him, work is underway in Uzbekistan to create added value from raw materials and resources. “If we take kaolin, we are now importing kaolin products. They take kaolin from us and sell it back to us as a product. We import coal, although we have both coal and kaolin in our reserves. But we didn’t do this until recently… Great opportunities, means, conditions will be created in this area, major projects will be implemented,” the president said.

As reported earlier, in the first six months of the year, gas production in Uzbekistan fell by 9.6%, or 2.51 BCM, compared to the same period last year. Against this background, in June the country increased its natural gas exports to China. In value terms, shipments rose to $85.3 million, up 9.1% from May.

According to the Statistics Agency, Uzbekistan imported gas worth $200 million in January-June, which is 2.6 times more than in the first half of last year. Gas is bought at a contract price and sold to the population at a reduced cost. To cover this difference, 14.2 trillion soums are planned to be allocated from the state budget in 2023.