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Addressing Urban Poverty in Uzbekistan in the Context of the Economic Crisis
IX. Concluding Remarks
In this Policy Brief, we have reviewed the available information
on trends in urbanization, and on urban poverty in particular, and
extensively documented the most recent economic trends in light of
the global economic and financial crisis. We have also reviewed some
medium- and longer-term trends, such as underlying demographic
changes and migration patterns, environmental factors (such as the
national supply of water), and structural changes in agriculture and the
economy as a whole.
We have repeatedly emphasized that the development of more
reliable data bases on urban conditions and on the scope and character
of urban poverty should be a priority for the government. Because of
the scarcity of reliable information in many areas, it has been difficult
for us to come to robust conclusions on many key issues. Instead, we
offer tentative conclusions in many cases.
Since one of our overriding purposes is to provide some policy
guidance on how to deal with urbanization and to reduce urban poverty,
we have concentrated in several areas on offering fairly detailed policy
recommendations, especially concerning urbanization in general and
housing conditions in particular.
This Policy Brief attaches particular importance to the impact of
general economic trends and especially of employment generation.
Though Uzbekistan’s economy continues to grow fairly impressively, it
is likely to confront major medium-term challenges as a result of the
current global and regional economic crisis and its own development
path.
One of the most important challenges consists in creating
widespread productive employment based on a dynamic process of
industrialization and technological modernization. Ultimately, this
will entail redirecting the government’s industrial strategy from its
current capital-intensive, export-led path to a strategy based more
on the achievement of employment intensity and the boosting of
domestic public and private investments as the main drivers of long-
term growth.
If the latter strategic direction succeeds, then Uzbekistan will
undoubtedly weather the current storm of the global economic crisis,
deal adequately with the likely medium-term acceleration in its rate of
urbanization, and substantially reduce the likelihood of a large increase
in urban poverty.
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