UZBEKISTAN LEGAL NEWSLETTER: MARCH 2026

On 5 March 2026, a Presidential Decree established the Tashkent International Financial Centre (TIFC) as a special financial and business hub aimed at attracting investment and facilitating access to the Uzbek market.

The TIFC will operate under a special legal regime, to be set out in a dedicated constitutional law, and will comprise the TIFC itself and the Tashkent International Commercial Court. The Decree provides that the TIFC will be located in the Shaykhantakhur district of Tashkent, with its boundaries defined in Annex 4 to the Decree.

The Decree, among other things, provides for the following:

• the application of the law of England and Wales and principles of equity within the TIFC, subject to its own regulations, with the TIFC governing bodies empowered to adopt binding rules across civil, corporate, commercial, financial, banking, tax, employment, public procurement, and data protection matters;
• a comprehensive scope of permitted activities, including financial, investment and banking services; insurance and reinsurance; operations with securities and other capital market instruments; payment systems and payment services; transactions involving digital (crypto) assets; financial technologies (fintech); Islamic and green finance; as well as the provision of professional services such as audit, accounting, consulting, and legal advisory; together with any other activities permitted under the constitutional law governing the TIFC;
• an investor-friendly regime, including the ability to perform monetary obligations in foreign currencies (including crypto-assets), simplified procedures for hiring foreign employees, a special visa regime (of up to 5 years for employees and their family members), and unrestricted repatriation of capital and income derived from activities within the TIFC;
• a long-term preferential tax and customs regime (until 1 January 2076), including exemptions from certain corporate, property, and social taxes, VAT relief for qualifying services, customs duty exemptions for goods imported for use within the TIFC, and preferential personal income tax treatment;
• the establishment of a dedicated Tashkent International Commercial Court, comprising first instance and appellate levels, with jurisdiction over disputes including (i) matters related to the activities of the TIFC and the International Digital Technology Centre, (ii) contractual disputes where the parties have agreed to submit to its jurisdiction, (iii) administrative disputes involving foreign investors, foreign-invested entities, or foreign individuals, (iv) certain administrative-law disputes brought at the option of a business entity (including cases involving economic sanctions), and (v) matters related to arbitration proceedings seated in Uzbekistan, including cases administered by international arbitral institutions and issues arising out of or connected with such proceedings.

Presidential Decree No. UP-48 of 30 March 2026

 2.  REFORM OF PRE-PROJECT AND PROCUREMENT REVIEW FRAMEWORK

On 13 March 2026, the President adopted a Resolution aimed at improving the review framework for pre-project and procurement documentation. The Resolution, among other things, provides for the following:

• the Center for Comprehensive Expertise of Projects and Import Contracts under the Ministry of Economy and Finance has been reorganised into the Center for Improving the Efficiency of Projects and Procurement. It will operate under an “assistant-consultant” model to support the preparation of pre-project and procurement documentation at the early stages of projects;
• the abolition of comprehensive review by the Center of the following documents:
  • pre-project documentation for private-sector strategic minerals projects (except for production sharing agreement projects), which will instead be reviewed by the Subsoil Use Center under the Ministry of Mining Industry and Geology;
  • tender documentation and technical specifications for lower-value public procurement in construction and repair projects (up to 25,000 base calculation units, or approximately USD 842,000);
  • from 1 April 2026 – terms of reference for the preparation of pre-project documentation;
  • from 15 April 2026 – pre-project documentation for projects valued at less than USD 15 million and (i) financed from the state budget, state trust funds, other duly established funds, and the Fund for Reconstruction and Development, or (ii) implemented by state-controlled corporate purchasers;
  • from 1 September 2026 – lists of imported goods eligible for customs duty exemptions, with the relevant function transferred to JSC “Uzbekexpertiza”;
• the introduction of parallel expertise of completed sections of pre-project documentation for large (USD 200 million to USD 1 billion) and mega (USD 1 billion and above) projects during the drafting stage;
• the possibility for the Center to apply an accelerated expertise procedure, at its initiative, to projects that are substantially similar to those previously reviewed and approved;
• the application of a simplified expertise procedure to projects involving the upgrade or replacement of physically or technologically outdated equipment at existing facilities;
• for newly developed large and mega-projects, the application of benchmarking methodologies as part of the expertise process;
• a shift in the expertise approach from assessing only the initial (bid) price to evaluating the total cost of ownership (TCO), including energy efficiency considerations, operating and maintenance costs, and end-of-life and disposal expenses;
• no additional fee will be charged for documents revised in response to the Center’s comments, and no new comments may be raised on other grounds.

Presidential Resolution No. PP-104 of 13 March 2026