Is Uzbekistan the most compelling frontier reform story today?

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and lasting until the mid-2010s, Uzbekistan’s economic model was a highly centralised, state-led system characterised by extensive price controls, strict FX controls and limited-to-no integration with global markets. In 2016, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev launched his “New Uzbekistan” reform agenda beginning in 2017 with exchange rate liberalisation, followed by trade liberalisation and tariff reductions. Reforms in the cotton sector also saw the end of systemic forced labour in the country in 2021. These reforms helped Uzbekistan’s GDP grow from $60bn...