Mapping out and assessing the economic performance of SEZs across the subregion, the publication highlights the threats they face from digital technologies, rising competition for foreign investment and international trade standoffs. Against the backdrop of COVID-19, it details a range of practical steps designed to increase trade, create jobs, and build economic resilience across the three countries.

Azerbaijan has set the course for the economy to reduce its dependence on oil by promoting new drivers of growth. This publication emphasizes the need for diversification, particularly in the agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing sectors. By 2025, under the Strategic Roads Maps of the Government of Azerbaijan, a more diversified economy should take shape led by these three sectors. Bold reforms need to strengthen areas of the economy that could otherwise impede this transition, and policy makers must resolutely stay on the reform path.

Uzbekistan has embarked on significant reforms since early 2017, aiming to improve the lives of ordinary citizens, enable business development, and open up to neighbors. The scale of changes is unprecedented. The new government aspires to modernize the country and to move it toward upper middle-income status. The formulation of the country partnership strategy (CPS) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is timely for supporting this reform agenda through investment financing, policy support, and capacity development.