Agricultural engineering and chemical industry projects considered

On July 5, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev got acquainted with the presentation of agricultural engineering and chemical industry projects.

A year ago, on July 8, a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan was adopted on increasing the efficiency of the activities of agricultural engineering organizations. According to the document, state shares in the authorized capital of Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant, Tashkent Aggregate Plant, Chirchiq Agricultural Machinery Plant and Technolog JSC were transferred to the trust management of Uzautosanoat JSC for three years. Tasks were set to increase the profitability of enterprises, improve product quality and reduce costs.

Over the past period, the production areas of Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant have been optimized by 68 percent. The efficiency of equipment operation has been increased. The cost of production decreased by 4 percent and about 45 billion UZS was saved. Talks were held with foreign manufacturers – the cost of tractors with a capacity of 80-100 horsepower has been reduced by 15-20 percent.

A partnership has been established with Minsk Tractor Plant. Within the framework of cooperation, it is planned to produce 3 thousand tractors per year in Uzbekistan.

There is still a lot to be done to increase the technological and production potential of enterprises, to provide agriculture with modern equipment. The fact that the level of utilization of the existing capacities of the industry is 19 percent, and the level of localization is on average 20 percent, is absolutely unsatisfactory. Moreover, the cost of locally produced equipment is 10-15 percent more expensive than imported ones.

Measures to create a cluster of agricultural engineering, increase capacity utilization and increase the level of localization were discussed at the event.

The main attention was paid to the issues of transferring industry enterprises from Tashkent to Chirchiq and organizing a cluster of agricultural engineering on their basis.

Thus, agricultural machinery factories in Tashkent and Chirchiq, Tashkent Aggregate Plant, the Technolog and Uz Claas Agro enterprises will be located in one place and united into an industrial cluster. 1.2 thousand devices, 28 types of equipment will be optimized. The utilization of production capacities will be increased to 85 percent, localization – up to 50 percent. As a result, production costs are expected to decrease by 20 percent and the profitability of enterprises is expected to increase by 10 percent.

The Ministry of Finance was instructed to allocate 500 billion UZS for the initial costs associated with the creation of the cluster. These funds will be returned by selling through an auction of buildings and structures, land plots of industry enterprises.

The President gave instructions on expanding localization and reducing the cost of equipment. In particular, the task was set to increase the level of localization of tractors produced jointly with the Minsk Tractor Plant to 40 percent next year and up to 50 percent in 2023, to bring localization at Uz Claas Agro enterprise to 25 percent.

The need was noted for providing preferences to farms and clusters when purchasing domestically produced equipment. It was proposed to reduce the initial lease payment from 25 to 15 percent, the interest rate from 16 to 7 percent, to extend the lease term from 5 to 7 years.

Instructions were given to improve the agricultural machinery service system based on the study of international experience.

Projects related to the creation of chemical clusters were also considered.

It is planned to implement 23 projects worth $3.4 billion in the cluster based on Navoiazot JSC. Production facilities will be created for $1.8 billion a year and more than 3.1 thousand people will be employed.

An enterprise for the production of urea-formaldehyde concentrate and resin was recently commissioned. This year, a sulfuric acid production project will be implemented.

It is also planned to organize the production of carbon fibers based on the joint venture Electrokimyozavodi in the city of Navoi.

Information was provided on the ongoing work to create a scientific and chemical cluster in Ulugbek village.

UzA