ISLAMABAD, May 19. /Dunyo IA/. Pakistani magazine “The Diplomatic Insight” published an article titled “Baku – WUF-13: Everyone has the right to decent housing, safe and sustainable cities”, reports Dunyo IA correspondent.

The article reports on the participation of the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in the 13^th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF-13) held in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku.

As noted by the publication, large-scale reforms in the field of housing construction and urban development are being implemented in Uzbekistan on the initiative and proposals of the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. In order to meet the growing demand for housing, 120 million square metres of residential property - or more than 600,000 apartments - have been constructed and commissioned across the country over the past eight years.

To facilitate home ownership, 541,000 citizens have been provided with preferential mortgage loans and subsidies totalling 103 trillion Uzbek soums. As a result of these measures, the level of urbanisation in the country has increased from 40.3 percent in 1991 to 51 percent.

For the effective and systematic implementation of state policy in the field of urban development, the President of Uzbekistan has issued a decree establishing the National Committee for Sustainable Urban Development and Housing Market.

In addition, the publication reports that in recent years Uzbekistan has seen the construction of 210 million square metres of buildings and infrastructure, as well as more than 15,000 apartment buildings comprising 647,000 flats. The volume of construction works has increased from 30 trillion Uzbek soums in 2016 to 314 trillion soums in the past year.

Today, Uzbekistan’s population has exceeded 38 million people, the urbanisation rate has reached 51 percent, and around 20 million residents now live in urban areas. In this context, the country’s urban development policy is increasingly shifting its focus from general principles to practical mechanisms, particularly issues of financing, governance and accountability.

It is also noted that the article was published on the Pakistani news portal “Infora News”.