"Giving land means giving life"

Recently, the number of banners and advertisements in Chinese language has been increasing in Tashkent city. This situation has sparked discussions on social media. In recent days, rumors have also emerged that Chinese people are buying up many lands in Tashkent. On March 6, the Cadastre Agency declared these rumors baseless and issued a statement.

Economist Otabek Bakirov commented on the Cadastre Agency's efforts to calm the public, stating, “Giving land is giving life.” He emphasized the need to correctly understand the concerns related to allocating land to foreigners while setting aside various speculations.

“Of course, the Land Code stipulates that foreign citizens and legal entities, stateless persons, and enterprises with foreign investments can only have land plots based on lease rights.

At the same time, in the increasingly complex global realities that are creating new challenges, it is necessary to understand that this criterion is insufficient. The social mood is also becoming harder to accept.

In this regard, in the next stages of the land reform that began in 2021, if a foreign investment participating enterprise is a contender for a land plot, it should be stipulated that at least 51 percent of it belongs directly or indirectly to citizens of Uzbekistan, as well as rules should be introduced that severely restrict the lease rights of foreign legal entities and foreign citizens for land plots,” Bakirov wrote.

He noted that there are strict rules regarding foreigners in relation to land in several countries, and this is considered a national consensus. Concerns that discussions about land may negatively affect the investment environment are unfounded, the economist stated.

“Because a healthy investor coming to Uzbekistan primarily comes to benefit from their investments, not to acquire land to become a landlord or to have a land portfolio. Moreover, the investment environment is being worsened by dozens of other factors (not only for foreign investors but also for Uzbeks), and it would be more appropriate to worry about that,” he wrote.

Gold mines and enterprises

Earlier, we reported that in February of this year, 31 land plots for extracting precious metals using the gold prospecting method in Navoi region were sold for 25.1 billion soums through electronic auction. Among those investing in gold prospecting in Navoi, there are quite a few Chinese. Among the 12 companies that obtained the rights to develop the 31 gold fields put up for sale, it is possible to see at least one Chinese among the founders in most of them.

The “Center for the Use of Land Resources” DM issued a statement to the public that concerns about the sale of the 31 mines in Navoi to the Chinese are unfounded. The center stated that there is not a single enterprise fully owned by Chinese citizens among those investing in gold mines.

Later, the holding of a rally by Chinese individuals carrying various flags in the Magic City Park in Tashkent raised questions in the public. The Ministry of Internal Affairs denied that it was a rally, stating that it was a collective running event by employees of Huawei. The ministry described this event in its statement as “an event worth emulating by our agencies and organizations.”

As of February 1, 2025, China ranked first in the number of companies with foreign capital participation in Uzbekistan. Over the course of a year, the number of Chinese companies in Uzbekistan increased by nearly 43 percent, reaching 3,467.