Karimov orders Uzbek companies ordered to hold 15% foreign capital

President Islam Karimov

Uzbek companies must ensure that at least 15% of their authorised foreign capital belongs to overseas investors, President Islam Karimov decreed last week. The move is aimed at attracting more overseas investors and managers and to create more favourable conditions for their active participation in corporate management,  the modernisation and technological re-equipment of the country’s production base and to help make domestically manufactured goods more competitive in export markets. It is also part of the government’s ambitions  to implement a   “drastic reduction in the state’s presence in the economy”.    
Companies have been given until July 2016 to comply with the order or risk exclusion from Uzbekistan’s register of joint stock companies and the loss of preferential tax breaks.
According to the decree, companies with where  foreign investment accounts for between 15% and 33% of the charter capital will enjoy lower income, property and other taxes.
Karimov also announced that foreign investors’ dividends on their shares in Uzbek joint stock companies would be exempt from taxation until 1 January 2020.