Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan

The event was attended by Shokhrukh Ishankulov, Deputy Director of the Department of Budget Policy of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Azimjon Khasanov, Head of the Division for Working with Projects Formed on the Basis of Public Opinion, and Khabibulla Khamidov, the Chief Specialist of this division.

During the press conference, specialists provided comprehensive answers to questions from journalists. In particular, it was noted that over 27,000 projects were proposed by citizens this season, of which more than 23,000 were selected by working groups according to established criteria and passed to the voting stage.

In addition, it is expected that more than 2 trillion soums will be allocated to finance the winning projects within this process.

The distinctive feature of the current season compared to previous ones is that the "Participatory Budget" processes will now be conducted in four stages:

• July 6–26 — proposal submission stage;
• July 26 to August 15 — moderation stage;
• August 15–22 — promotion stage for selected projects;
• August 22 to September 1 — voting stage for selected projects.

For reference: Starting from the first season of 2024, the principle of "One Citizen — One Vote" has been introduced in the "Participatory Budget" processes.

According to the resolution of the Senate Council of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated July 29, 2024, No. KQ-787-IV, a number of amendments and additions were made to the existing procedure for conducting the "Participatory Budget" process.

These amendments and additions were developed taking into account the proposals of the general public, including active citizens, media representatives, and deputies.

Among the main changes:

• To create an opportunity for all neighborhoods to win, now within the "Participatory Budget," neighborhoods (organizations) that have been declared winners consecutively in the last two seasons will be given a break for the next two seasons (i.e., the opportunity to submit projects for these neighborhoods will be limited).
• This procedure, i.e., the practice of applying a break, will be implemented starting from the second season of 2025.

This, in turn, will give an opportunity to win to those neighborhoods that have been participating in the processes for several seasons but have not been able to gather enough votes compared to larger neighborhoods.

Additionally:

• The Ministry of Poverty Reduction and Employment is launching a "hotline" to record cases of compulsory involvement of public sector employees in the voting process;
• After the voting phase is completed and the winners are determined by the "Open Budget" portal, local councils of people's deputies (districts/cities) will be given the authority to additionally declare non-winning projects as winners using additional local budget funds;
• The implementation of each winning project will be monitored monthly on-site by a working commission, and the results of the inspection will be reflected in the "Mobile Monitoring" section of the "Open Budget" portal.

The project will be handed over for use only after all the work on the project is fully completed and the quality of work is approved by the initiative citizens, the neighborhood chairman, and activists.

Press Service

Ministry of Economy and Finance