On February 28 President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed a presentation on the effective organization of public-private partnership projects in the social sphere.

Large-scare reforms on reducing the state presence in the economy are carried out in our country. The Law “On public-private partnerships” adopted in 2019 has opened up a broad range of opportunities for this.

Such partnership brings good results in the social sphere as well. In particular, due to the opening of private kindergartens for 1.2 million children, the coverage of preschool education has reached 77 percent. Within the framework of 67 projects in the sphere of higher education, 29 thousand students have been provided with places in dormitories. In the medical sphere, the private sector has a significant share in dentistry, otorhinolaryngology, laboratory and other services.

Despite the achieved successes, there is still a high demand and significant reserves for development in this area. In the course of the presentation the proposals on expansion of public-private partnership in medicine, education, culture and sports were considered.

Measures have been identified to implement 5 projects worth $1.2 billion in healthcare, 6 projects worth $745 million in pre-school and school education, projects worth $100 million in higher education together with the Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other partners.

In particular, the construction of modern multidisciplinary clinics in Tashkent, Fergana, Bukhara, Andijan and Samarkand is envisaged. It is planned to transfer services of central polyclinics of the regions not related to medical activities to the private sector.

The issues of involving the private sector in specific types of activities in the spheres of culture and sports have also been considered. Currently, 43 cultural centers have already been transferred to private management, there is a possibility to transfer 127 more facilities.

The need to similarly renovate unused swimming pools, sports halls and playgrounds with the expansion of recreational services was emphasized. To this end, a proposal was put forward to simplify the procedure of transferring cultural and sports facilities to private partners.

The Head of State instructed the ministries of social sphere and khokimiyats to approve and implement “road maps” in terms of facilities, accelerate public-private partnership projects.