Uzbekistan’s Legislative Chamber has approved a proposal to send a parliamentary inquiry to Ansabkhon Zokirov, Director of the Technical Regulation Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers. The decision was made at a parliamentary session on November 10.
The inquiry requests explanations on measures being taken to improve public administration in the sector, accelerate digitalisation and reduce corruption risks.
According to MP Nodira Jonibekova, the parliamentary inquiry was prepared by the Committee on Entrepreneurship, Competition Development and Industrial Affairs and the faction of the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party.
Jonibekova said that Uzbekistan is reforming its technical regulation, standardisation, metrology and conformity assessment systems to ensure product safety, reduce technical barriers to trade and improve the competitiveness of domestic manufacturers. However, reviews have revealed a number of problems in the sector.
In particular, efforts to identify and eliminate corruption risks in technical regulation have been inadequate. The need to accelerate digitalisation was also highlighted.
The MP also drew attention to the outdated standards database. According to her, nearly 50% of the more than 33,000 standards currently in force are outdated or do not meet international requirements.
“This is becoming a major obstacle to Uzbekistan’s accession to the World Trade Organisation. Full compliance of the technical regulation system with international requirements is one of the key conditions for membership,” Jonibekova said.
The parliamentary inquiry asks the agency’s director to provide detailed explanations on four key issues. However, these issues were not read out during the session.
Jonibekova noted that the matters had been discussed by all parliamentary factions and that the proposal to send the inquiry had received their support. She called on MPs to back the proposal to submit the parliamentary inquiry to the agency’s director.
The English version of this material was generated with the assistance of AI translation tools and may differ slightly from the original text.
