OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2009. In the first 9 months of 2009, the amount of attracted direct foreign investment doubled, to reach USD 1.534 billion. At the same time, the share of foreign direct investment in total investment reached 24.8% against 16% in the first nine months last year.

In the course of the investment program in January-September this year, Uzbekistan through all funding sources drew more than 9 trillion soums of capital investment, which is 28.3% more than in the same period last year.

According to the Ministry of Economy and the State Statistics Committee, 72.8% of the total investment in the economy was directed at industrial construction.

The total volume of credit investment of commercial banks to projects and current capital of companies, particularly exporters, increased by 34.3%, to reach 8.4 trillion soums, 78.3% of which were long-term loans for investment purposes. Deposits of the population and legal entities in banks increased by 50.9%, including 68.8% of individual deposits.

In January-September this year, 371 new production facilities were introduced, including 71 in light industry, 139 in food industry, 122 in construction materials, 13 machine engineering and 10 in agriculture and forestry.

As part of the program of development and modernization of leading branches of economy for the period under review, 156 projects were carried out in petroleum and chemical industries, mechanical engineering, ferrous metallurgy, construction materials industry, cotton industry, pharmaceutical, light, food and other industries.

Projects were implemented to equip companies of fuel industry with rigs and 3D seismic survey systems, launch production of digital clocks for cars at IDAS Electronics, increase production of car seats at UzTongHong and automobile wires at UzKoji. Nine cotton-processing plants were modernized and reconstructed for processing 40,000-45,000 tons of raw cotton at each, 100 projects were launched within the modernization of bread-baking enterprises and construction of new, modern small businesses.

Under the program of modernization of electric power supply, reduction of energy consumption and energy conservation, 361,400 electronic meters were installed, providing a more accurate metering of electricity consumption. O’zbekiston power substation (500 kV) was constructed with the installation of a transformer (501,000 kVA), 169.4 km of high-voltage lines of 500 kV as well as  8.4 km of 220 kV power lines in the direction of New Angren TPP-O’zbekiston substation. Construction of G’uzor-Surkhon high-voltage line to 500 kV is being finalized.

As a result of measures taken to expand the scope of house building, more than 1,000 specialized companies were created for full construction, reconstruction and repair of housing facilities. Specialized repair and construction organizations signed 1,370 contracts totaling USD 72.8 billion soums.

For the expansion of rural construction, offices of Qishloq Qurilish Bank and the engineering company Qishloq Qurilish Invest opened in all regions of the republic. Forty two sites were determined for complex housing development in rural areas on 22 standard design for housing and 16 community facilities.

New enterprises are created under the auspices of Qishloq Qurilish Invest for the production of walling and other building materials. In general, for the nine months of the year, 6.361 million square meters of housing were built, including more than 4.728 million square meters in rural areas.