The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD’s) annual meeting returned to Uzbekistan recently for the first time since 2003, when the meeting’s usual focus on infrastructure investments and the private sector gave way to concerns about the country’s poor human rights track record under former president Islam Karimov.
That historic meeting resulted in the multilateral development bank gradually winding down its investment activities in Uzbekistan and a decade-long absence from the country. But the bank started reinvesting in Uzbekistan again in 2017 and at this year’s annual meeting in Samarkand, a new Uzbek government led by reformist president Shavkat Mirziyoyev was eager to stress that “today’s Uzbekistan is not yesterday’s Uzbekistan”.
