Government Approves Strategy for Modernizing Public Finance and Debt Management
The government in Uzbekistan has taken a significant step towards improving public financial management by approving a new strategy. The resolution, which was recently published on Lex.uz, aims to revamp the budgetary system in order to increase efficiency across the board.
Among the key objectives of the strategy are enhancing the effectiveness of public spending and investment, ensuring smooth budget execution, fostering digitalization in the financial sector, and strengthening fiscal discipline. In total, the document outlines 16 action points that will guide the reform efforts.
One particular area of focus is maintaining control over public debt to ensure it remains at a level that promotes macroeconomic stability and can be managed without issue. To achieve this, a new practice will be implemented requiring the preparation of a three-year public debt management strategy, with annual updates, to drive the development of the government securities market.
The strategy also emphasizes structuring the public debt portfolio with a focus on balancing cost and risk, as well as taking steps to boost the secondary market for government bonds, diversify the investor base, and increase the issuance of short-term domestic securities. Moreover, auction calendars for government bonds will be published regularly starting in June, and reports on public debt will be shared with the Public Sector Debt Statistics (PSDS) database maintained by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund from September.
Looking ahead, the government aims to expand the information available on macro-fiscal risk assessments in the budget message and fiscal strategy, as well as establish procedures for setting limits on public-private partnership (PPP) projects. These initiatives reflect a comprehensive approach to enhancing public financial management in Uzbekistan.
