BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 21. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has instructed officials to secure $200 million in World Bank financing for railway infrastructure by the end of the year and take urgent steps to expand freight wagon capacity as businesses report mounting logistics constraints.
This was reflected in the statement published by the official channel of the Press Secretary to the President of Uzbekistan.
The directives were issued during a government meeting reviewing economic performance in the first half of 2026, with rail transport identified as a key bottleneck affecting trade and industrial production.
According to the president, around 70% of Uzbekistan's foreign trade cargo, or approximately 46 million metric tons, is transported by rail, making the sector critical to the country's export and import supply chains.
Despite its importance, Mirziyoyev said entrepreneurs continue to raise concerns about the availability of freight wagons and the efficiency of rail services.
Officials reported that since the beginning of the year, cement producers have been unable to obtain 2,800 freight wagons they had requested to transport their products. The government also acknowledged that plans to manufacture an additional 1,300 freight wagons during the second half of 2026 will not be sufficient to meet growing demand.
To address the shortage, Mirziyoyev instructed responsible agencies to prepare, within 10 days, a feasibility plan for bringing 10,000 idle freight wagons from partner countries into Uzbekistan in cooperation with the private sector.
The president also highlighted capacity constraints on several of the country's busiest railway corridors, including the Angren–Pap, Tashguzar–Kumkurgan, and Tashkent–Samarkand lines, which he said are operating under excessive workloads.
As part of efforts to modernize the rail network, Mirziyoyev ordered officials to reach an agreement by the end of the year on attracting $200 million in financing from the World Bank for railway infrastructure development.
In addition, the Prosecutor General's Office was instructed to examine how funds allocated for increasing the freight wagon fleet have been used and review the current system for allocating railcars to businesses.
The president called for proposals to improve the transparency of freight wagon distribution, responding to longstanding complaints from the private sector over access to rail transport.
The measures form part of Uzbekistan's broader strategy to strengthen transport infrastructure and improve logistics efficiency as the country expands trade and industrial production. Increasing rail capacity and improving the transparency of freight services are expected to play a key role in supporting export growth, reducing transport bottlenecks and enhancing Uzbekistan's position as a regional transit hub.
