Uzbek President Appoints His Daughter to Lead Tashkent's New Financial Zone
Saida Mirziyoyeva, 41, who already heads her father's administration and holds lifetime immunity from prosecution, will run the tax-free zone governed by English common law.
TASHKENT, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev appointed his influential daughter on Thursday as head of a planned special economic zone in the capital Tashkent that is part of a wider drive to attract foreign investment into the Central Asian state.
Saida Mirziyoyeva, 41, has served as the head of her father's administration since 2025, and is also vice chair of Uzbekistan's security council. She received lifetime immunity from prosecution under a constitutional law passed last month.
Uzbekistan has in recent years been pursuing a programme of economic reforms, even as politics in Central Asia's most populous country, which has almost 40 million people, remains tightly controlled.
Mirziyoyev took office in 2016 and has dismantled many of the economic restrictions that were in place under his predecessor, Islam Karimov, who governed from the fall of the Soviet Union until his death.
Saida Mirziyoyeva has publicly championed the reforms as a top adviser to her father.
Mirziyoyev announced in June the plan to open the special economic zone, known as the Tashkent International Financial Centre, a tax- and customs-free area to be run on English common law.
Uzbekistan's economy grew by 8.5% in the first half of 2026, the state statistics committee has said, maintaining one of the fastest growth rates in the former Soviet Union.
The appointment by politicians of their relatives to senior positions has become a regular feature of governance across Central Asia since the end of communism.
(Reporting by Muhammadsharif Mamatkulov, Writing by Felix LightEditing by Gareth Jones)
