Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 27
Trend:
Uzbekistan started preparations for the procedure of obtaining a sovereign credit rating, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Kuchkarov said during a meeting of the International Press Club (IPC) Sept. 27, Gazeta.uz news website said.
“We are at the very beginning of obtaining a sovereign credit rating,” he said. “The New-York based Citibank will become our consultant, maybe it will be a consortium of banks - the nearest future will show.”
He said that the program for processing an application to get a sovereign credit rating is awaiting approval by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in the near future.
Jamshid Kuchkarov said that the Uzbek government considers sovereign credit rating as one of the ways to diversify sources of raising funds from abroad.
“Sovereign credit rating is needed, first of all, not to obtain money in the market, we need it in order to determine a kind of benchmark,” the deputy prime minister said.
He added that after receiving the sovereign credit rating, big companies and banks of Uzbekistan will be able to obtain a similar rating and raise funds in the market.
Obtaining sovereign credit rating of Uzbekistan will promote the growth of foreign direct investments, expansion of cooperation with foreign partners, as well as creation of favorable conditions for banks and enterprises for attraction of loans in the global financial markets at lower interest rates.