Uzbekistan’s government has placed 5-year government securities on the Republican Currency Exchange (UzRVB) to diversify financial instruments and attract new participants to the financial market, the Finance Ministry said.

The weighted average yield on these government securities, 100 billion soums (9.4 million), was 12.65 percent, creating a benchmark for debt instruments with a 5-year period, the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, the demand for 5-year government securities exceeded supply by 1.7 times at the auction.

The ministry said that it was consistently increasing the volume of government securities and taking measures to develop domestic financial markets “in order to diversify the public debt portfolio and reduce currency risks.”

Earlier this month, Uzbekistan announced a roadmap to develop its capital market and increase the total volume of securities in free circulation to at least 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), as a part of its plan to reform its economy.

A consultant from the U.S. Treasury Department has been providing technical assistance to the government to develop the domestic capital market as part of the cooperation between the two state bodies. The ministry also cooperates with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank on the process.

The volume of government securities issued by the finance ministry in 2018 amounted to 597 billion soums, 1,550 billion soums in 2019, 5,024 billion soums in 2020, and in January-April 2021 it amounted to 1,173 bln soums, according to the ministry.

Uzbekistan issued its debut sovereign Eurobonds worth $1 billion in 2019 and equivalent to $750 million in both local and foreign currency in 2020.

Three banks in Uzbekistan – the state-owned Sanoatqurilishbank, NBU and privately-owned Ipoteka-Bank placed their inaugural Eurobond offerings on the international financial markets.

The Central Asian country is making efforts to reform its centralized economy and improve investment climate after more than two decades of economic isolation.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who came to power in 2016, has made attracting foreign investors one of his top priorities in an increasingly ambitious plan to open Uzbekistan to the outside world.