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Buyers of state assets and non-agricultural land plots in Uzbekistan will now be required to pay an advance of only 15 percent of the purchase price, with 30 calendar days to make that initial payment and the right to settle the remaining balance in interest-free instalments over periods set by law. The terms are among the central provisions of a presidential decree signed on 28 August 2026, which a member of the Legislative Chamber’s Budget and Economic Affairs Committee has described in detail.
Otabek Musulmonov, the committee member, said the decree is aimed at raising investment activity in the regions, putting existing assets to productive use and creating new jobs. He emphasised that the goal is not simply to transfer ownership from one hand to another, but to build conditions in which economic resources are used efficiently.
One of the decree’s practical innovations is a so-called “ready package” procedure for putting land plots up for sale. Under this arrangement, the technical conditions for connecting to engineering and utility networks, along with the construction documents an investor needs, are prepared in advance before the plot goes to auction. Musulmonov said this matters because purchasing land is only the first step — how quickly a buyer can begin production is equally important. By eliminating the bureaucratic delays and costs of obtaining those documents after purchase, the procedure is intended to accelerate the launch of new projects in the regions.
The decree also covers the management of assets held by state-owned enterprises and banks, the rationalisation of administrative building use, and improvements to corporate governance. Musulmonov was careful to distinguish between the one-off revenue a privatisation sale generates and its longer-term economic value. The durable benefit, he argued, shows up in subsequent production volumes, the scale of services provided, tax receipts and employment — not in the sale price alone. “The result that matters more than ‘it was sold’ is ‘it started operating, investment came in, jobs were created’,” he said.
The decree also allows the terms of support measures to be applied to contracts concluded under earlier privatisation programmes, which Musulmonov said could ease conditions for investors already implementing ongoing projects. He added that such measures must be applied on the basis of each contract’s legal status and the requirements attached to it, and that responsible agencies must not allow excessive bureaucratic obstacles.
On parliamentary oversight, Musulmonov noted that the decree recommends that regional councils of people’s deputies — including the Tashkent city council — hear reports from responsible organisations on implementation. He argued that those hearings should go beyond counting how many objects have been sold, and should track how many have actually begun operating, how much investment has been attracted, how many jobs have been created and what problems investors are encountering.
He singled out infrastructure bottlenecks — delays in connecting to electricity, gas, water and road networks, as well as hold-ups in document registration and construction permitting — as issues that should not escape parliamentary scrutiny. Regional councils, he said, should not limit themselves to listening to agency reports but should also monitor whether specific problems are being resolved and whether the measures taken are producing results.
Musulmonov concluded that the real value of the opportunities set out in the decree will be visible only in practical outcomes. When an idle building becomes a functioning enterprise, or unused land becomes a revenue-generating project, the benefit extends beyond the individual investor to the entire region. On that basis, he said, the effectiveness of privatisation should be measured not by the number of properties sold but by the jobs, economic activity and improvements in living standards they generate.