Uzbekistan is implementing significant reforms to improve the business environment for economic development and enhance investment attractiveness. However, recent analyses indicate that traditional measures such as tax incentives and digitalization are no longer sufficient. The core issue lies in the normative-legal environment itself: it still retains outdated requirements, while new ones frequently emerge due to a cascade of by-laws, making it unpredictable, complex, and difficult to manage.
According to data, 346 normative-legal acts were adopted in 2014, but by 2025, this figure reached 1,274, an increase of nearly 3.7 times. Of these, 1,180 (93%) are by-laws. As of March 2026, the active document array totaled 15,232. This growth is not only quantitative but also functionally more complex, creating an additional burden for businesses, referred to as a 'legal tax,' and uncertainty.
The current system includes tools such as a public discussion portal, regulatory impact assessment (RIA), registration of departmental documents, E-decision, and a register of mandatory requirements. However, they operate in a fragmented manner and do not uniformly cover the normative-legal array. This fails to establish a full cycle for clearing outdated norms, quality control, and limiting the growth of new requirements. Consequently, the system is more adept at producing new norms than at cleansing old ones.
Reforms require a radical reduction in by-laws, as well as strengthening existing mechanisms. Additionally, mechanisms to prevent system expansion must be introduced, such as making the development of new requirements more costly for the system itself. This could enhance stability for investors, courts, and the state apparatus.
One problem is contradictions in the hierarchy of norms: various agencies may issue documents that duplicate or contradict each other. This weakens the primacy of law and complicates judicial protection. In 2017, economic courts reviewed 347,400 cases, but by 2025, this figure reached 690,800 (a twofold increase), indicating growing legal uncertainty.
In reforming the system, foreign experiences can be utilized, such as methods from countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and Russia, including 'regulatory guillotine,' 'one in, two out' rules, and regulatory budgeting. For Uzbekistan, a key task is to establish a unified quality control center, ensure independent verification of calculations, and clearly define exception lists to make the regulatory system compact, predictable, and manageable.
Source: www.gazeta.uz