Expert Council on Transport and Logistics.

It was attended by representatives of the State Tax Committee, the State Customs Committee, the Uzbek Agency of Automobile and River Transportation, Association of International Freight Forwarders, Association of Customs Brokers, Association for the Development of Business Logistics, Association of International Road Carriers, as well as business entities.

The agenda included such issues as:

1. Automobile transportations of cargoes in Uzbekistan: situation and conditions of development.
2. Normative and legal regulation of cargo transportation by motor transport in the Republic of Uzbekistan in the conditions of economic liberalization: state and measures for further improvement.

Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan B. Asadov, declaring the meeting open, noted the importance of broad involvement of business entities in the processes of improving and developing transport and logistics, taking into account the intensively growing volume of trade between Uzbekistan and other countries.

He also informed that in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On measures to radically improve the system of state protection of legitimate business interests and further development of entrepreneurial activities" No.UP-5087 of June 19, 2017. CCI is working to attract business entities to the processes of developing measures to further improve the state of the business climate, organization of public examination of draft regulatory legal acts by creating expert councils, including in the field of transport and logistics for training and making proposals to the Government for improving legislation aimed at strengthening the rights and lawful interests of business.

A.Hashimov (general director of ITS-Central Asia LLC) during his speech noted that this meeting of the Expert Council will serve as a kind of a platform for discussing the existing problems on the development of road transport, the development of appropriate proposals for their solution, as well as the improvement of legislation aimed at regulating this industry. A.Hashimov familiarized the participants with the current state of development of the transport and logistics sector, stressing that the share of motor transport accounts for more than 53.4% of Uzbekistan's total freight turnover and more than 95% of the total volume of transported goods in the country.

At the same time, problems and barriers were voiced that adversely affected the development of this sphere, including:

• The pace of renewal of rolling stock seriously lagged behind the dynamics of economic growth.
• The trucking industry remains opaque in tax and insurance terms. High tax rates are one of the factors in the development of the shadow economy and hiding the real volumes of activity of international carriers, even when using preferential taxation regimes;
• The current state of the monetary, tax and customs-excise policy does not allow for an active modernization of the rolling stock of national international carriers.

Further with the proposals were made by other participants of the meeting. In particular, D. Khamraev (representative of the Association of International Freight Forwarders of Uzbekistan) gave his proposals on improving the regulatory and legal framework for organizing international road transport.

During the Expert Meeting, the participants of the event explained the essence and content of the recently adopted Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PP-3422 of December 4, 2017 "On Measures to Improve the Transport Infrastructure and Diversify Foreign Trade Routes for the Carriage of Goods for 2018-2022".