Uzbekistan to reform civil legislation to attract foreign investments

By  Trend

Uzbekistan plans to reform civil legislation, thanks to which the country will get rid of obsolete legal institutions and forms of legal entities that are not found in the legal systems of developed market economies.

Trend reports with reference to the corresponding order of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev published on the portal Lex.uz.

Uzbekistan plans to reform civil legislation, drafts of the necessary documents and a code should be submitted to the government before April 1, 2020.

To further improve the code, it is planned to attract representatives of academia and civil society institutions, as well as foreign experts.

As noted in the document, the code adopted in 1995-1996 helped to overcome the "transition period" and lay a solid legal basis for the development of a market economy in the country.

"The new stage in development of Uzbekistan should include priorities for further liberalization of the economy, reducing the state’s presence in regulating economic relations, strengthening the protection of guarantees of private property, as well as stimulating the development of entrepreneurship and actively attracting foreign investments," the document says.

The experts conducted an analysis which showed that the current Civil Code of Uzbekistan has a number of shortcomings and gaps, which negatively affect primarily the implementation of market reforms, the formation of a favorable investment climate and business environment, the improvement of country’s position in international ratings.

The following concepts will be spelled out in the new code: commercial risk, equality of economic entities, fair compensation, refusal to fulfill contractual obligations, as well as a public-private partnership contract, shared construction, cluster production, electronic commerce, cryptocurrency turnover, land privatization, etc.

Moreover, the order notes that in the current code there are too many organizational and legal forms of legal entities that are similar to each other and consist of a mixture of rules borrowed from other organizational and legal forms. A private enterprise and unitary enterprise can be used as an example. Both types of commercial organizations cannot attract investments, since the law does not provide for the inclusion of other participants in their membership.

The document also stressed that the responsibility for eliminating the shortcomings lies with the Interdepartmental Commission for the Improvement of Civil Legislation. Within a month, it needs to ensure that the issue of attracting international organizations to the development of new drafts of the Civil Code and other regulatory acts aimed at improving civil legislation is being worked out.