The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan has published a first quarter progress update and second quarter plan for regional development programmes, covering new funding allocations, city revenue measures, project financing and externally supported infrastructure initiatives. In the first quarter, socio-economic development decisions were prepared for 13 regions, with nine adopted and others moving through approval, while additional resources included UZS 2.3 trillion from the budget and USD 500 million from FRRU. Local budgets also received UZS 3.9 trillion for 33 districts and 330 mahallas given "New Uzbekistan image" status, alongside UZS 3.9 trillion for 37 difficult-category districts and 903 mahallas plus UZS 1.3 trillion from local budgets. Using the "Olmazor experience", 50 large cities identified UZS 8.8 trillion in extra budget revenue against a UZS 7.4 trillion plan, and business plans for city infrastructure improvements were approved. A first UZS 1 trillion was allocated to 283 driver projects comprising 51 industrial, 180 services and 52 agricultural projects. With World Bank support, the ministry began engaging foreign urban planning firms including Groupe Huit, Buro Happold and IDOM for Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya and Samarkand, signed a USD 400 million loan in February for the "Livable and Sustainable Cities in Uzbekistan" Program-for-Results project, and utilised USD 80 million under the Rural Infrastructure Development and Integrated Development of Medium Cities projects against an annual USD 405 million plan. For the second quarter, work will continue on applying artificial intelligence to regional development based on the "Narpay experience", including the planned launch of the IM AI platform at ai.imv.uz using an LLM model built on economic agencies' databases and steps to create a project office for AI in commercial banks. Planned financing includes USD 42 million this year for 14 districts with "New Uzbekistan image" status under the World Bank Program-for-Results, UZS 1.2 trillion for 200 busy streets, 206 waterfronts and 500 roadside infrastructure projects in services, UZS 450 billion for tourism infrastructure in 150 mahallas, UZS 150 billion for 50 microindustrial centres covering 400 mahallas, USD 180 million of utilisation under the Rural Infrastructure Development and Integrated Development of Medium Cities projects, and the start of a national spatial-territorial strategy funded by a USD 6.6 million European Union grant.

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