Between March and April 2025, the first maternity units were fitted with up-to-date equipment. One of the units, completly renovated, is based in Almalyk, which is around 60 kilometres outside the capital, Tashkent. Accompanied by the UN representative in Uzbekistan and the Uzbek authorities, Switzerland's ambassador to Uzbekistan, Konstantin Obolensky, gained a sense of the progress achieved when he opened the facility today.
The specific aims of the project are to acquire up-to-date medical equipment (incubators, electrocardiograms, infusion pumps, respirators, etc.), repair existing infrastructure, provide booster training for medical staff, and conduct awareness-raising campaigns. The overarching objective is to reduce the risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth by giving women and children access to high-quality healthcare. All 230 public maternity units in Uzbekistan will benefit from this USD 43.5 million project, which is due to be completed in 2026.
Project funded by restituted assets
The maternity units project is part of an agreement between Switzerland and Uzbekistan, which was signed on 16 August 2022. The agreement concerns the restitution of assets which had been illicitly obtained through corruption and definitively confiscated in criminal proceedings in Switzerland linked to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of former Uzbek president Islam Karimov.
To date, USD 313 million in assets have been definitively confiscated and are in the process of being restituted. The assets are being managed by the “Uzbekistan Vision 2030 Fund”, a UN multi-partner trust fund which ensures that the assets restituted are managed transparently and effectively. The assets are being allocated to projects benefiting the population of Uzbekistan, including the project to modernise maternity units, such as the one inaugurated today. Switzerland and Uzbekistan are represented on the fund's strategic committees. Uzbek civil society is closely involved in the discussions about the fund's priorities and the monitoring of the projects.
Fighting corruption
Switzerland is active in the fight against corruption. As an international financial centre, Switzerland has developed an asset recovery practice which, under certain conditions, allows illicitly acquired assets of foreign politically exposed persons (PEP) to be frozen, confiscated and restituted to the population of the state of origin.
Links
- Agreement between Switzerland and Uzbekistan signed on 16 August 2022
- Uzbekistan Vision 2030 Fund
- Further information on current projects is available on the Uzbekistan Vision 2030 Fund website
- news - interview with the Swiss ambassador to Uzbekistan Konstantin Obolensky
- Restitution of illicit assets
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/eda_dfae/albums
Address for enquiries:
FDFA Communication Bundeshaus West 3003 Bern +41 58 460 55 55 kommunikation@eda.admin.ch
