“People possess $10 billion. They keep their savings “under the mattress” at home” – Sodiq Safoyev

In an interview with Kun.uz correspondent, the First Deputy Chairman of the Senate spoke about the need to develop production in the country.

According to him, the population has money, but the money is spent on housing and weddings, or is kept “under the mattress”. He said that if the money was spent wisely, there would be no need to wait for an investment.

“As in every society, our people also have savings. If we directed them to production, foreign investment would lose its relevance today. According to expert estimates, the population has about $10 billion.

But this money is not spent on production, but on housing or weddings, or simply stored “under the mattress”. But people must use these funds – money has to increase its value. We need to create new jobs and to do that, we need a capital market. Businessmen keep talking about that for years.

Our banks, unfortunately, do not compete for clients. World experience shows that only when banks compete for customers, will there be economic growth. If they confine themselves to storing their assets, their role in the economy diminishes.

We have two important tasks ahead. First, we have to reform our banks. Second, we need to develop the capital market,” said the representative of the Senate.

Capital market capitalization is 1 percent of a country’s GDP. The Director of the Capital Market Development Agency, Otabek Nazarov, said that in developing countries the figure is 30-60 percent, whereas in developed countries – 100 percent.

As of November 1, 2020, the total market capitalization of the stock exchange was 52.55 trillion soums or more than $5 billion.