President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced the introduction of the 'silence means consent' principle for half of state services related to entrepreneurial activities. This statement was made on August 18 during an open dialogue with entrepreneurs in the Khorezm region.
According to this innovation, if an entrepreneur's application is not reviewed within the established timeframe, it will automatically be considered approved in favor of that entrepreneur. Furthermore, the president noted that all cases of refusal to issue a license will be checked by the Business Ombudsman, and responsibility for unjustified refusal to issue licenses is planned to be strengthened.
As part of the reforms, Uzbekistan also intends to abolish licenses and permits for more than thirty types of activities. For another thirty-five types of activities, the deadlines for processing the relevant documents will be reduced by two to three times.
It is planned to transfer ten more types of permits to a notification procedure. This will allow entrepreneurs to start the relevant activity after submitting a notification, bypassing the former permit acquisition procedure.
Specific changes concern food product exporters. Instead of separate veterinary, sanitary, and phytosanitary permits, they will receive a unified 'Health Certificate'. All these measures are aimed at simplifying the process of obtaining necessary permits and licenses, as well as reducing administrative barriers in interactions between business and government agencies.