Legal Obstacles and Risk Prevention for Chinese Direct Investment in Uzbekistan

Аннотация

As the Belt and Road Initiative deepens, Uzbekistan has emerged as China’s most significant investment destination in Central Asia. By 2025, total Chinese investment and financing in Uzbekistan exceeded USD 15.5 billion, accounting for approximately 36% of the country’s total foreign capital inflows. However, the rapid expansion of investment scale has been accompanied by hidden legal risks that are often underestimated. This article systematically examines the recent evolution of Uzbekistan’s foreign investment legal framework, with particular emphasis on the institutional innovations introduced by the 2025 edition of the Law “On Investments and Investment Activities” and their implications for Chinese investors. It identifies four primary legal obstacles: sectoral access restrictions, land tenure complexities, labour compliance requirements, and dispute resolution uncertainties. The analysis reveals that while Uzbekistan has achieved remarkable convergence with international standards at the legislative level, persistent challenges—including legal fragmentation, policy implementation gaps, and the embedded localisation obligations inherent in the “Salini criteria”—constitute the principal sources of risk in practice. The article proposes a four-stage risk prevention strategy—rule identification, structural optimisation, compliance integration, and risk reserving—to enable Chinese investors to harness market opportunities while maintaining effective legal risk control.