Original Research Article Regional Disparities in the Socioeconomic
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AGRICULTURADOI: TROPICA 10.2478/v10295-012-0003-x ET SUBTROPICA AGRICULTURA TROPICA ET SUBTROPICA,VOL. 45/1, 4520-27, (1) 20122012 Original Research Article Regional Disparities in the Socioeconomic Development of Uzbekistan Tatiana Surkova Department of Economic Development, Institute of Tropics and Subtropics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic Abstract The regional disparities in the socioeconomic development are observed in all countries of the world and are given by objective and subjective reasons. This article provides an overview of a study of regional backwardness in the Republic of Uzbekistan; it also identifi es common features among lagging regions and possible reasons for this state. Uzbekistan is divided into 14 regions. By means of the statistical analysis of socioeconomic indicators and empiric study, 5 regions were found to belong into a group of regions with low level of socioeconomic development: Autonomic Republic of Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Namangan, Syrdarya and Surkhandarya. Even though the absolute elimination of regional disparities is not possible, if they continue to be ignored, they could undermine the socioeconomic and political situation in the country. Keywords: Republic of Uzbekistan; economy; transition, socioeconomic development; regional disparities; backwardness, rating method. INTRODUCTION economic growth rate. According to the Gemayel and Grigorian study (2006), this was possible mainly Uzbekistan is the third largest of the fi ve post- through a combination of three factors: a) low level of communistic countries in Central Asia. Since it gained its industrialization, b) availability of raw materials for independence, Uzbekistan chose its own way to transform export, and c) energy self-suffi ciency of the country. In its command economy into a market economy, a way that the new millennium, the average economic growth rate was more gradual and socially oriented. The Government’s exceeds 6% (Table 1). Even the global fi nancial crisis did effort to protect its population against shocks caused by a not affect Uzbekistan severely due to its limited fi nancial very fast transition into a market economy, as well as fast liberalization. Regardless of its credible rates, the liberalization processes, such as the ones known from Russia economic growth struggled to create more workplaces, and other post-communistic countries, together with a lack and to signifi cantly reduce poverty. of transition specialists, resulted in a slowdown of reforms In Uzbekistan, socioeconomic development shows introduction and implementation. substantial differences across regions and between Because of the size of its population, its strategic urban and rural areas (Bhat and Rather, 2011). The geographic position in the region, and its signifi cant great differences existing between regions are given economic potential, Uzbekistan could appeal for the by objective factors such as the regions’ territory and position of a regional leader. Ever since the early stage their population, availability of natural resources for of transition, the country was achieving a positive production (raw materials, arable land, and water for Table 1: Key Macroeconomic Indicators (% change year on year) Indicator 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 GDP 3.8 4.2 4.0 4.2 7.4 7.0 7.5 9.5 9.0 8.1 Industry 5.9 7.6 8.3 6.0 9.4 7.2 10.8 12.1 12.7 9.0 Agriculture 3.1 4.2 6.0 7.3 8.9 5.4 6.7 6.1 4.5 5.7 Capital investment 1.0 4.0 3.6 4.8 7.3 5.7 9.3 25.8 34.1 24.8 Export 0.9 -2.9 -5.7 24.6 30.3 11.5 18.1 40.7 27.8 2.4 Import -5.2 6.4 -13.5 9.3 28.7 7.2 16.9 40.7 44.2 -2.7 Source: CER (2010). 20 AGRICULTURA TROPICA ET SUBTROPICA VOL. 45 (1) 2012 irrigation), ecological load, and their distance to the The 2000-2009 period was chosen because in these center of Uzbekistan and to Central Asia’s main markets. years Uzbekistan completed the stabilization stage of Beside these objective factors, there are some other economic reforms. Also the growth and structure of reasons that are causing regional disparities in the the country’s GDP became progressive and more stable country’s socioeconomic development (Yunusov and (Shadmanov, 2010). Yunusov, 2006): Time series analysis was used to analyze the statistical • High concentration of industrial production and data. Data describing an economic development of production infrastructure in certain regions; Uzbekistan’s regions were analyzed by their indices and • Insuffi cient adaptation of the mostly agrarian regions to by assessing the indicators’ values per capita. An index the market environment; (e.g. of gross regional product) is the quotient between • Uneven distribution of local and foreign investment; the indicator’s value in year 2009 and indicator’s value • Unsound use of the natural and economic potential of in year 2000. In this basic form, the index is showing the the regions; change of the indicator’s value in a certain period of time • Unequal budget allocation; and (10 years in our case). • Inadequate economic regulation of the regions taking For demographic indicators, the following statistics their unique features into account. were used for the analysis of time series: average Removing these differences between regions or at absolute increases and the average rates of growth. The least minimizing them would not only adjust their average absolute increase is calculated as the quotient of socioeconomic level but help create and maintain a the absolute increase for the entire period divided by the sustainable and balanced economic development in the number of time units in the period. The average rate of country. However, so far there has not been any effort or growth is computed as the geometric average of the rates program that takes into account the specifi c characteristics of growth for the individual intervals of time. and opportunities of each region. It must be mentioned, that the availability of offi cial statistical data in Uzbekistan is limited, both in terms of physical quantities of yearbook copies, and in the free- MATERIALS AND METHODS access to them for the people. Moreover, even such limited data are not always reliable; this is because the State This study aims to defi ne development trends in Statistical Committee rarely publishes comprehensive the regions within Uzbekistan, compare their level of and clear data indicating the methodologies used for their development, and identify those regions which are lagged calculation. behind. Knowing the shortcomings of the Uzbek statistics, it To analyze the regions, measure their socioeconomic was decided not to use the results of time series analysis development level and identify groups with different for the traditional forecast of future development trends levels of development, it is necessary to assemble a (which could be in this situation misleading), but to large number of variables classifi ed as demographic, compare the current state of the regional development employment, education, health, industry, agriculture, by a simple ranking approach. This allows us to create construction, fi nancial and other welfare indicators, and a rating of all the regions according to certain indicators merge them into a composite index (Özaslan et al., 2006). and divide them into a few groups with different levels of The choice of indicators for this study was signifi cantly socioeconomic development. determined by the availability of statistical data for A rating method was used to aggregate a series of these indicators. The basic indicators of economic indicators into a more general indicator - rank of the development that are used for assessing and evaluating region. For each indicator, the regions were ranked the country’s regions are: Gross regional product (GRP) according to the indicator’s value per capita and its per capita, Industrial production, Agricultural production, index (Table 2). To rank all the regions according to a Capital investment, Retail trade turnover, Paid services, certain indicator, we used the statistical function RANK, Construction works, Export and Import. All indicators given included in the MS Offi ce Excel application. For our in monetary units were transformed into per capita values for study, rank 1 corresponds to the worst outcome among the purpose of having a more objective comparison between regions and rank 14 to the best one. regions. Demographic indicators such as population and An advantage of using the rating method consists in economically active population are included in the research the ability to scale indicators measured in different units as well. As a source of statistical data, the publication (monetary terms and others) in the range from 1 to 14, “Almanac Uzbekistan 2010” of Uzbekistan’s Center for according to the number of regions in Uzbekistan. A Economic Research (CER) was used. disadvantage of this method is that it does not give an 21 AGRICULTURA TROPICA ET SUBTROPICA VOL. 45 (1) 2012 Table 2: Regional demographic data Population Economically active population Region Size (‘000) Index d1 k Size (‘000) Index d1 k 2000 2009 2009/2000, % (‘000) % 2000 2009 2009/2000, % (‘000) % Andizhan 2201.3 2524.6 114.7 35.92 1.015 828.7 1085.6 131.0 28.54 1.030 Bukhara 1428.5 1600.7 112.1 19.13 1.013 585.9 752.3 128.4 18.49 1.028 Ferghana 2681 3048.7 113.7 40.86 1.014 1022 1310.9 128.3 32.10 1.028 Jizzak 983.1 1107.8 112.7 13.86 1.013 295 365.6 123.9 7.84 1.024 Karakalpakstan 1530 1623.1 106.1 10.34 1.007 489 568.1 116.2 8.79 1.017 Kashkadarya 2189.7 2589.6 118.3 44.43 1.019 725 932.2 128.6 23.02 1.028 Khorezm 1335.8 1546.2 115.8 23.38 1.016 461.2 587.5 127.4 14.03 1.027 Namangan 1938.7 2238.1 115.4 33.27 1.016 609 783.3 128.6 19.37 1.028 Navoiy 787.2 845.3 107.4 6.46 1.008 322.1 405.7 126.0 9.29 1.026 Samarkand 2690.2 3090.7 114.9 44.50 1.016 921 1174.5 127.5 28.17 1.027 Surkhandarya 1753.5 2054.4 117.2 33.43 1.018 574.8 739.5 128.7 18.30 1.028 Syrdarya 646.1 708.4 109.6 6.92 1.010 248.3 311.7 125.5 7.04 1.026 Tashkent 2360.2 2568.8 108.8 23.18 1.009 895.8 1117.4 124.7 24.62 1.025 Tashkent city 2140.1 2220.7 103.8 8.96 1.004 1005.2 1165.9 116.0 17.86 1.017 Notes: Indicator d1 is an average absolute increase, and k is an average rate of growth.