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President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ordered the creation of an Investors’ Council for Uzbekistan’s fuel and energy sector, to be chaired by Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the Presidential Administration, placing one of the country’s most prominent officials at the centre of efforts to unblock stalled energy projects and deepen foreign capital flows into the sector.
Mirziyoyev made the announcement during an open dialogue with energy sector investors, according to the presidential press service. He acknowledged that delays in land allocation, electricity grid connections and the issuance of technical specifications had become persistent obstacles to project implementation — problems that companies operating in the sector had long flagged as structural rather than incidental.
The council’s creation came directly in response to a request from investors themselves. Companies including Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power, Vision Invest, DataVolt, Voltalia and France’s EDF proposed a standing mechanism for continuous dialogue with government. Mirziyoyev accepted the proposal on the spot, framing the new body as a vehicle for finding prompt solutions to problems investors encounter at every stage, from initial land allocation through to the commissioning of completed facilities.
Workforce gap and private-sector training
The meeting also turned to a constraint that sits behind many of the sector’s project delays: the shortage of qualified technical personnel. Acwa Power is already equipping vocational schools in Karakalpakstan, Bukhara and Syrdarya regions and training hundreds of young people annually in emerging energy-related fields. Mirziyoyev called on other investors present to follow suit and help develop specialists to international standards; several expressed readiness to participate in managing regional technical schools.
To widen the domestic pipeline of talent, admission quotas for energy-related programmes at Uzbekistan’s higher education institutions will increase from the next academic year. The government will also fund 50 state grants annually for young Uzbeks to study at leading universities abroad.
Liquefied gas privatisation by 2027
In a separate announcement at the same meeting, Mirziyoyev said the government intends to transfer liquefied gas supply to the private sector across the country by 2027. Approximately 3.8 million households currently rely on liquefied gas, and a pilot programme involving private entrepreneurs has already been launched in the Andijan region as a test of the model before national rollout.
The appointment of Saida Mirziyoyeva to lead the new council gives it considerable institutional weight. As head of the Presidential Administration, she has previously been tasked with high-profile coordination roles, including emergency talks on Tashkent’s air quality and membership of the jury for the 2026 Zayed Award — the first Central Asian to hold that position. Placing her at the head of a body designed to resolve investor grievances signals that the government regards energy project acceleration as a priority requiring direct access to executive authority rather than routine bureaucratic processing.