China and Russia are hungry for Uzbek tomatoes
, or teahouse, had been built to take advantage of the traffic between two of the biggest cities of the Fergana Valley, a fertile region at the heart of Central Asia. After the break-up of the Soviet Union Andijan and Osh had found themselves in two different countries, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, creating a nearby border post . Then in 2005 the Uzbek authorities brutally repressed anti-government demonstrations in Andijan and sealed the border, halting trade and dividing many families.
The number of registered businesses has doubled in the past year. Foreign investment has jumped fourfold, although its growth rate has recently dropped. But the changes made so far, says Jamshid Kuchkarov, the minister of finance, have been the easy ones, since they have been popular with ordinary citizens.
The government has undone many of the subsidies for cotton farmers, but is paying them something closer to a market price for their crop. At the same time, it is trying to create a domestic textile industry by sharply restricting exports of raw cotton. Exports of textiles have risen from $100m ten years ago to $1.9bn last year. The government hopes to reach $7bn by 2025.
“They are pushing reforms faster than many of us think possible,” says one Western diplomat. To foster this ambition, Mr Mirziyoyev has drafted experienced émigrés, such as the former investment banker who now heads the stockmarket regulator and the ex-director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development who is now minister of trade and investment.
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