Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan hosted a practical seminar on “Industry in the Right Places: Regional Specialization, Transport Corridors and Better-Performing Economic Zones for Uzbekistan”. The event was organized as part of the cooperation between the Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship and the World Bank in Uzbekistan.
The keynote speaker was Esen Çağlar, Managing Partner at PAL and an expert in industrial policy, competitiveness and regional economic development. Working with UNDP and OECD, he has advised the governments of Turkey, Oman, Kazakhstan, Palestine, Cyprus and Ethiopia. He previously served as Senior Advisor at the Supreme Council for Planning of the Sultanate of Oman. From 2013 to 2016, he was Deputy Managing Director of the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), where he managed more than twenty projects in Turkey, the Balkans, the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. He has been an adjunct lecturer at Bilkent University since 2006. He holds an MPA in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and an A.B. from Princeton University.
In his presentation, the speaker outlined an approach to the location and development of industry across several interconnected levels:
industrial hubs built on the resources already available in a region;
transport corridors that take into account existing and prospective logistics routes;
regional specialization based on what a region produces and where its strengths lie;
special economic zones as a distinct instrument of industrial development.
The main conclusion of the presentation was that industry should be developed comprehensively, at all levels simultaneously and at a fast pace, rather than through isolated measures. According to the speaker, only such a combined approach will allow Uzbekistan’s regions to fully realize their industrial potential.
