Measures to reduce bureaucracy in public service delivery reviewed

In recent years, the country has carried out extensive work to improve the convenience, speed, and transparency of public services for the population and businesses. The coverage of public services has increased tenfold, exceeding 61 million, with 80 percent of services provided online. In 2023 alone, more than 2,000 mandatory requirements in the field of entrepreneurial activity were abolished.

However, unnecessary procedures, paperwork, and duplicative requirements still persist in this area. Today, government bodies have 5,650 functions, there are more than 42,000 mandatory requirements regulating business activity, and 1,041 public services are available.

“Such a number of functions and requirements can make the system inefficient, costly, and sometimes unfair. Therefore, the only way forward is deregulation, digitalization, and simplification,”the Head of State noted.

To transform Uzbekistan into a territory free of excessive bureaucracy by 2030, the Eliminating Bureaucracy – 2030 program has been launched jointly with the United Arab Emirates. A dedicated project office has been established under the Agency for Strategic Development and Reforms.

The program provides for a 30 percent reduction in the functions of government bodies, optimization of business requirements by up to 20 percent, and an increase in the share of electronic public services to over 90 percent.

The presentation reviewed proposals for a fundamental improvement of the public services system based on the “service-oriented state” model. The main emphasis is on providing services quickly, transparently, and conveniently, without requiring a single unnecessary document.

It was proposed to introduce the “zero bureaucracy” principle across 783 types of public services. This will enable 550 services to be converted to electronic format and halve the number of stages required for their provision. Another 80 services are planned to be converted to proactive and composite formats. As a result, the population will be able to save up to 35 billion soums annually in transportation costs associated with visiting various agencies.

The timeframes for providing another 80 services will be reduced by two to three times – from an average of 13 days to 6 days. Ten services are planned to be fully automated. Reducing fees for 25 types of services will allow the population to save up to 851 billion soums annually.

Plans also include transferring 10 services to the private sector and digitizing 15 types of certificates and documents. This will eliminate the need to repeatedly request such information and documents across more than 270 services.

Particular attention was paid to revising mandatory requirements. For example, more than 500 requirements are applied separately across 20 documents related to market activity. It was noted that their systematization would allow for the optimization of more than 30 percent of these requirements.

The possibility of generating certificates of compliance with sanitary requirements and lists of employees subject to medical examinations through an electronic system was also highlighted. This will save 1 billion soums in budget funds annually and redirect 24,000 employee working hours to operational activities.

According to estimates, reducing the administrative burden will generate a direct economic effect of $1.5 billion per year. Improving the quality of regulation will help attract an additional $800 million in foreign investment. Simplifying interaction between the state and businesses will increase labor productivity by $750 million annually. Overall, the measures to reduce bureaucracy are expected to contribute an additional $13 billion to the country’s economy in 2026–2030.

The presentation also proposed maintaining registers of state functions, mandatory requirements, and public services on a unified platform, reestr.gov.uz, as well as introducing a system for assessing the performance of agencies based on the Bureaucracy Radar system and AI-powered analysis, and for calculating entrepreneurs’ costs through the Business Calculator.

The President noted that public services are directly linked to protecting the interests of the population, creating a favorable environment for business, and improving the efficiency of public administration. The need for each ministry and agency to review its functions, eliminate redundant requirements and documents, and accelerate the digitalization of services was emphasized.

Responsible officials were instructed to submit a draft resolution on eliminating bureaucracy, defining specific digitalization plans for each ministry and agency, simplifying public services, and increasing private sector participation.

Instructions were also issued to promote best practices and ensure the consistent implementation of the “zero bureaucracy” principle across all government bodies.