The Uzbekistan Fund for Reconstruction and Development (FRD) should be transformed into a fully-fledged sovereign wealth fund. This was stated on September 17 by Abdulla Abdukodirov, First Deputy Director of the Agency for Strategic Development and Reforms, during the plenary session of the VIII Cbonds International Conference “Capital Market of the Republic of Uzbekistan”, Spot correspondent reports.
In his view, access to cheaper financing would make it possible to create more affordable instruments in the securities market and establish a domestic source of capital.
“I think the time has come for our sovereign fund — the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan — to transform from an investment fund, which it essentially is today, into a truly sovereign fund. Then this fund will become a source of cheap money”, Abdukodirov said.
He also noted that without reducing the cost of financing in the domestic market, it would be difficult to establish a large domestic source of capital. According to him, more fundamental issues need to be addressed to develop the domestic capital market.
Abdukodirov said that 97% of issued bonds are traded abroad, while only 3% circulate within Uzbekistan.
“Everything you see is 97% of the bonds that have been issued and are traded abroad, while [only] 3% are inside Uzbekistan. What does this tell us? It means that all of this is focused on the external market”, he said.
The English version of this material was generated with the assistance of AI translation tools and may differ slightly from the original text.
