OREANDA-NEWS. October 23, 2009. The gross domestic product of Uzbekistan showed an 8% growth in the first nine months of 2009, it was announced at the session of the Cabinet of Ministers.

The industrial production increased by 9.1%, agricultural production grew by 3.3%, services sector expanded by 15.8% and construction works increased by 33.5% in January-September.

The state budget was implemented with a surplus of 0.2% to the GDP and the inflation levels did not exceed the forecast parameters, it was noted.

The government said the anti-crisis program implemented in the country helped to successfully neutralize the negative influence of the world economic crisis on the economy and ensured its balanced and dynamic growth.

The active investment policy and the speed-up of the most important projects have led to increase of the capital investments by 28.3%, including 2.1-times growth of foreign direct investments.

A total of 156 technical modernization projects were implemented and 371 industrial objects (including 139 in food industry, 122 in construction materials sector, 71 in light and textile industry and 13 in machinery sector) were commissioned in the nine months.

The measures of stimulation of the local producers like additional tax and customs preferences and expansion of the preferential crediting have resulted in growth of the consumer goods production by 13.7%.

In the framework of the industrial localization program, production of more than 100 new types of production was launched and the volumes of production of localized goods increased twice, with sales of localized production reaching USD 2.6 billion.

According to the government data, 743,500 new workplaces were created in the three quarters of this year, which is 36.4% more than in the same period of last year.

Of that number, 311,100 workplaces were created in the small business sector, including 203,000 in the service sector and 77,900 in the home-based work sector.

The Cabinet approved the draft Program of creation of workplaces and employment of the population for 2010, which should be approved by the Oliy Majlis (parliament).

The document envisages creating 950,000 new workplaces next year, including 282,000 in the service sector, 208,000 in the home-based work sector and 61,300 in the field of social infrastructure development.

The implementation of the state program “The year of rural development and improvement”, 4.7 million square meters of individual housing was built, and 577 km of gas and 1,680.8 km of water pipes were laid in January-September.

42 areas have been selected in the rural regions, where the construction of the new housing will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The 2010 rural housing construction program envisages building 8,500 individual houses with the living area of 955,000 square meters. Of this, the construction of 840 houses with living area of 95,000 square meters will be started this year.

A total of UZS 588.7 billion will be allocated for the financing of this program, including UZS 284.9 billion of preferential credits provided by Qishloq Qurilish Bank (Rural Construction Bank).