Uzbekistan, Asian Development Bank to expand cooperation

By Trend

Uzbekistan and Asian Development Bank agreed on public-private partnerships to improve municipal water infrastructure in Uzbek cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Namangan and Karshi, Trend reports referring to the press office of the bank.

The memorandum of agreement was signed by Dilshod Azimov, First Deputy Minister of Housing and Communal Services of Uzbekistan and by Cindy Malvicini, the Country Director of Asian Development Bank’s Uzbekistan Resident Mission.

“This is a historic event and we hope that together with Asian Development Bank we will successfully implement this project. We believe that this project will help us to engage highly qualified and experienced private water operator to improve delivery, quality and rendering of water supply and sanitation services to residents of these four cities,” said Dilshod Azimov.

“The Ministry of Housing and Communal Services will be taking a lead role in preparation and implementation of this project,” he added.

The Government of Uzbekistan has identified the water supply and sanitation sector as one of the top priorities in the national development agenda and has initiated a series of reforms including introduction of public-private partnerships to spur the sector’s development.

“Asian Development Bank is very pleased to support the Government of Uzbekistan to introduce projects on public-private partnership basis in the water supply and sanitation sector,” said Cindy Malvicini.

“Asian Development Bank will act as the advisor to the Government to prepare and structure the water supply and sanitation projects in the cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Namangan and Karshi and help procure private partners by early 2021,” she concluded.

As one of the first public-private partnership projects in Uzbekistan in a critical social sector, the Asian Development Bank advisory services will help demonstrate how the private sector participation can be involved in improving the operations and management of existing water supply and sanitation systems in Uzbekistan with strict performance targets for the private operator. It will also help to bring additional investments and international expertise to support further improvements in the sector.