Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On June 21, 2021, an online meeting was held with the minister of finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan Timur Ishmetov, project management coordinator of the International Finance Corporation Daniel Sousa, and a delegation led by Chief Expert Pamela Hedstorm.

The meeting was attended by finance minister Omonullo Nasritdinkhodjayev and Odilbek Isakov, director of the department of financing and development of the mortgage lending market Farrukh Botirov and employees of this department.

The meeting was also attended by experts of the International Finance Corporation Maria Turetski, Elena Klepikova, Natalia Pastukhova, Stephen Orleski and others.

Since 2018, Finance Minister Timur Ishmetov has been cooperating with the Asian Development Bank to implement structural reforms to develop the mortgage market in Uzbekistan, improve existing legislative documents, in particular, with the participation of the Ministry of Finance and commercial banks, create an Uzbek company for refinancing mortgage loans, allocate long-term funds from this company, from the account of these funds, commercial banks provided information to the population that mortgage loans are allocated in the market for the purchase of housing in the primary and secondary markets, as well as loans for housing repairs.

At the same time, T. Ishmetov emphasized the need for further reform of the mortgage market on the basis of international best practices, improving the practice of mortgage lending to commercial banks, expanding the scope of banking services in order to meet the demand of the population for housing today.

At the meeting, Pamela Hedstorm expressed her opinion on the measures taken to develop the housing market in Uzbekistan.

The chief expert noted that the government of Uzbekistan has achieved significant results in this area as a result of housing construction and improved policy in the mortgage market in the last 2017-2020 years. They also discussed the development of a concept for the development of the mortgage market, the creation of a company for refinancing mortgage loans and the introduction of mortgage lending schemes based on market principles.

At the online meeting, project management coordinator Daniel Sousa said that the level of housing provision in Uzbekistan in 2010 was 15 sq. m. from 2020, 16 sq. m. it was noted that there is growth, but still lagging behind the level of developing countries, although the volume of mortgage lending is growing, but still remains low in the country.

He also said that the main goal of the IFC is mortgage lending in Uzbekistan, and the construction of houses is to further increase the market growth potential. To do this, within the framework of the partner program:

- evaluate the technical capabilities of mortgage market participants, including the demand of the population for housing and mortgage loans, as well as commercial banks and mortgage refinancing companies;

- study of legislative acts on the development of the mortgage market and prepare proposals for making changes and additions to them, based on the available opportunities;

- increase the supply of housing to the population through the study of construction organizations (developers) engaged in the construction of houses, the introduction of a modern system of financing the construction of houses, in particular through "Escrow" accounts;

- increasing the popularity of loans by further expanding the types of mortgage loan servicing by commercial banks, including the introduction of a mortgage deposit system (housing and construction savings deposit);

- based on the development of the capital market, it is aimed at increasing the chances of attracting long-term funds to the mortgage market, including creating conditions for the issuance of mortgage-backed securities.

At the meeting, the main tasks for the successful implementation of the program within the framework of cooperation were identified and state support was announced.