The Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan held a roundtable with logistics-sector startup founders, venture funds, commercial banks, trade lending organisations and government agencies to identify measures that could support startup development, improve sector transparency and expand access to finance and insurance. Participants agreed to further develop the proposals and implement them jointly through continued interagency and market dialogue. Key outcomes included plans for JC Xalq Bank, together with an insurance organisation, to develop a simplified pilot insurance product for market participants, while Uzbekinvest proposed an insurance product for the logistics sector integrated with logistics mobile applications. FEA National Bank proposed developing a fuel card product to optimise carriers’ fuel payments, and the provision of factoring services by state banks to logistics companies will be examined. The discussion also covered cooperation to create joint products between startups, banks and trade lending providers, studying alternative scoring methods based on carriers’ turnover and transaction flows with banks and insurers, assessing the feasibility of enabling VAT refunds on fuel and ancillary services in cooperation with the State Tax Committee and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and improving customs crossing processes including promotion of the electronic queue system already implemented. Next steps focus on continuing the systematic dialogue and moving the agreed measures into implementation, including a proposed review by the Ministry of Transport of the efficiency and transparency of the international road transport permit system.

Original source View in tracker