Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Sept. 28
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
Uzbekistan supports the goals of the sustainable development program of the United Nations, designed for 2016-2030, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov said in his speech at the session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Kamilov said that Uzbekistan, which was once the one of the most backward republics in terms of potential and poverty with unilaterally developed economy, has become a stable and steadily developing country with a modern diversified economy, providing crucial growth of prosperity and quality of life of the population, steady progress on the path of democratic renewal and modernization.
"The Republic of Uzbekistan now ranks fifth in the world among countries with rapidly developing economies, according to the international financial and economic structures, and the average GDP growth rate amounted to more than 8 percent during the last 10 years, despite the ongoing global economic crisis," he said.
He went on to add that for twenty-four years of independent development of the country, Uzbek economy grew more than 5.5 times, while the real income of the population grew by nine times.
Average life expectancy of men rose from 67 years to 73 years, while the average life expectancy of women reached 75 years, he said. The social development of the population receives about 60 percent of the state budget, including education - 35 budgetary funds (10 - 12 percent of GDP), according to him.
"This is especially important when one considers that more than 60 percent of the population accounts for young people under the age of 30," said Kamilov.
Foreign minister also said that the reforms in the health sector only in 2009 made it possible to reduce the level of death of children under five years by one-third provided for in the millennium development goals, while reduction of maternal mortality by one third was achieved in 2013. Reduction in the spread of HIV/AIDS has been achieved since 2009, he said.
The incidence rate of tuberculosis has decreased by 1.6 times compared to its peak in 2002, he said.
The measures taken in the country for improving the environmental sustainability reduced the volume of emission of contaminants per capita from 95 kg in 2000 to 61 kg in 2015, said Kamilov.
He added that the energy intensity of GDP has been reduced more than half over the last 15 years.
The status of gender equality has significantly changed - women account for about 50 percent of the total employment in the economy, according to the foreign minister.
"I would like to emphasize that the program adopted in Uzbekistan in early 2015 for deepening reforms, structural changes and modernization of economy, expanding the scale of private ownership and entrepreneurship for 2016-2020, will be a good base for this," he added.
The main purpose is to turn Uzbekistan into one of the democratically developed countries with steadily developing diversified economy and high-level quality of life of the population, said the foreign minister.
"Our key point is to turn Uzbekistan into one of the countries with income above the world average by 2030," Kamilov added.
Edited by CN