Uzbekistan Financial Sector Reform Project

The development objective for Financial Sector Reform Project for Uzbekistan is to support the authorities in restructuring and/or privatizing state-owned banks, increasing financial resilience to disasters, and expanding finance for exporting Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This project has four components. 1) The first component, State-owned banks modernization, commercialization, and privatization, has the following sub-components: (i) Consultancy support and institutional capacity building for Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan (MOF) to support the ownership function over State-owned commercial bank (SOCBs); (ii) Consultancy services to support SOCB restructuring; (iii) Support to modernize SOCBs’ core Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure; and (iv) Support to modernize SOCBs’ core ICT infrastructure. 2) The second component, Financial preparedness to disasters and strengthening insurance sector stability, has the following sub-components: Develop a national disaster risk financing strategy; and (ii) Capacity building for Insurance Market Development Agency (IMDA). 3) The third component, Development Bank, export and import financing instruments, has the following sub-components: (i) Technical assistance to MIFT to support the establishment of a development bank in Uzbekistan; and (ii) Technical and institutional building support to the Export Promotion Agency (EPA) and Export Support Fund (ESuF) in improving and enhancing its export, import and trade finance products. 4) The fourth component, Project Management, will finance the functioning of the project implementation unit (PIU) and overall project implementation and management costs.