A regional round table convened in Tashkent on 29 November 2022 brought together police, prosecutors and legal educators from four Central Asian countries to examine how corruption and institutional shortcomings obstruct the protection of women and girls from violence.
Representatives from Uzbekistan and three other Central Asian states travelled to Vienna in July 2022 to study European Union practices in agricultural clustering and Geographical Indications, as the region pushes to raise the commercial value and international recognizability of its farm exports.
The Ministry of Finance and UNDP convened an international forum in Tashkent on 30 August 2022 to assess the expansion of participatory budgeting, after the first 2022 cycle saw 6.7 million citizens vote on more than 69,000 proposals, resulting in 1.2 trillion soums allocated to 2,354 winning projects from district and city budgets.
A large-scale study completed in Nukus on 7 May 2025 has produced two new analytical tools for monitoring dust migration across the Southern Aral Sea region and, for the first time, quantified in digital terms how vegetation cover on the drained sea bed reduces salt removal.
The US dollar climbed above 12,000 sums on October 15 for the first time since late July, closing at 12,011.65 sums after an eight-day consecutive rally that reversed a prolonged decline stretching back to a three-year low recorded in September.
A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to resume the Diversity Visa lottery, setting a registration window opening no later than November 1 and results by December 3, after a legal challenge by immigration law firm Red Eagle Law.
Average monthly electricity consumption per household fell from 212 kWh in 2023 to 184 kWh in 2025, while gas use dropped from 431 to 342 cubic metres over the same period, the Ministry of Economy and Finance reported on October 14.
A Visa survey of 249 Uzbek small and medium businesses finds digital payment adoption is now widespread, but only 37% of firms have integrated those payments with broader operational tools — a gap that costs businesses time and limits their access to tailored financial services.
Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Agriculture has proposed banning apple imports until February 2027 and potato imports until March 2027, a move that would close a key seasonal market for Uzbek agricultural exporters at the height of the harvest period.
Founded in Uzbekistan in 2015, Bellissimo Pizza has moved from 100 domestic locations to an 11-branch footprint in Kazakhstan within a single year, acquiring the assets of a local Papa John’s franchisee and targeting 200 restaurants across the country by 2030.
Safia, one of Uzbekistan’s largest confectionery chains, plans to grow its Kazakhstan network from 11 to 25 branches by the end of this year, with each new location requiring between $100,000 and $150,000 in capital. Shymkent operations are already profitable; Almaty is expected to reach break-even before year-end.
A third of the country’s teachers have been rated unsatisfactory in their own subjects, base salaries remain well below a presidential pledge, and documented incidents of officials publicly humiliating educators have accelerated a flight from the profession that is hollowing out public schooling.
