Uzbekistan's EBRD Portfolio Tops $7bn as 2027 Agenda Set

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev told European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President Odile Renaud-Basso on 10 November that the bank's project portfolio in Uzbekistan has exceeded $7 billion, Trend reported, on the sidelines of the COP31 climate conference in Antalya.

The meeting confirms Uzbekistan's position as the EBRD's largest recipient in the region and sets out an agenda for 2027 that includes grid modernisation, bank privatisation and the launch of the Tashkent International Financial Center.

What was said in Antalya

According to Trend's report of 11 November, EBRD financing in Uzbekistan topped $1 billion for the first time in 2025, and the country has been the bank's largest recipient in the region for six consecutive years. Green economy projects make up about 60% of the bank's Uzbek portfolio. Priorities for 2027 are electricity grids, agriculture and food, privatisation in the banking sector, the Tashkent International Financial Center and public-private partnership projects. The two sides also discussed preparations for the next Council of Foreign Investors meeting, scheduled for 2027. COP31 runs from 9 to 20 November.

Context

The $7 billion figure is not new. When Mirziyoyev received an EBRD delegation led by Renaud-Basso on 18 June 2026, the presidential website already put the portfolio above $7 billion and called Uzbekistan the bank's largest partner in the region. The national news agency UZA listed the agreements welcomed then: green transport, railway digitalisation, entrepreneurship support, the mortgage market and the startup ecosystem. The June priorities also included small business and export lending, the agri-food sector and transformation of the banking and financial sectors.

What changed in November is the emphasis. Bank privatisation and the financial centre are now named explicitly as 2027 priorities, alongside grids, which were not on the June list.

What it means

For a market that has grown quickly, the EBRD acts as both lender and signal. A portfolio that has held above $7 billion while annual financing crossed $1 billion suggests steady deployment rather than a one-off surge. The 60% green share fits the climate setting of the meeting and the grid agenda, since modernising networks is a precondition for absorbing more renewable generation.

Bank privatisation is the item with the most direct effect on investors, because it determines how much of the sector moves out of state hands and under what terms. The financial centre, if launched, would add a regional venue for capital raising alongside existing hubs elsewhere. Railway digitalisation, one of the June deals, is the kind of work that matters to east-west freight, although the sources do not tie it to a specific corridor, so any Middle Corridor link remains an inference.

What to watch

Watch for the first concrete privatisation mandates and any EBRD participation in them, the timetable for opening the Tashkent International Financial Center, and the date of the 2027 Council of Foreign Investors. The EBRD's own announcements of new Uzbek loans will show whether the headline portfolio is converting into grid and agriculture financing. Uzbekistan's recent growth figures, covered in our report on nine-month GDP, set the backdrop for that demand.

Sources: Trend, 11 November 2026; President of Uzbekistan, 18 June 2026; UZA, 18 June 2026.

Image: Caucasus Business Journal archive, via caucasusbusinessjournal.com