Renault, Veolia, Suez and Total are trying to take advantage of the recent economic opening of the country to embark on the main market in Central Asia. The large public market pick up by Veolia will serve as a test for the investment climate.
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Just re-elected, on October 24, for a second five-year term, President Uzbek, Chavkat Mirziyoyev, tries a delicate maneuver of diversification between Russia, who wants to attract him into his Eurasian economic union, and the Chinese hyperpower. Developing in quasi-autarcia until 2016, the country of 35 million inhabitants is thirsty for new technologies and modern infrastructures. The air call was quickly perceived by French Suez and Veolia.
The first has already signed two co-management contracts for the water and sanitation network, first in 2019 with Samarcande, the second city of the country, then in 2020 with the capital, Tashkent, for an amount of 142 millions of euros. Shortly before the presidential election, Veolia won on 29 September a contract for the operation and maintenance of the Tashkent district heating network for a period of thirty years and a turnover of 13.4 billion. euros. Finding a ground between the French commercial culture and the one still very Soviet, senior Ouzbeks officials were arduous.
“It’s a social enterprise, so politically sensitive since it comes to providing heating and hot water to a population, in a rude winter climate city. The town hall wanted to get rid of a potato Hot in the subcontractor, entrusts the world a source close to the negotiations. I am not sure that the mayor understand the principle of the contract, but what reassures is the support of the Ministry of Finance Ouzbek. ” Veolia will equip all the units of individual meters and has ten years to dissociate the hot water circuits from that of heating, whose Soviet design causes enormous energy loss.
Almost a single brand. car
The award of the public market in Veolia has sparked questions in the business community, some of which have entrusted to us their surprise not to have seen a call for tenders. “The procedure is called” Swiss Challenge “[Swiss Challenge] in business jargon, continues the source of the world. The initiative comes from Veolia, which has started [in 2018] the Tash Hall of Tachkent, which then launched a Call for tenders to which no one has responded on time, except for a South Korean society, whose proposal does not fit with the specifications. “
For economist Akhmed Rahmanov, “This contract is a test for the Uzbek investment climate, because it is for this country of the first public-private partnership. Everyone will observe if it goes well” . It is not won because the Iuzbek scourge is the capture of economic assets by a small group of individuals close to power.
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