Shavkat Mirziyoyev,
Leader of an Eastern Renaissance

Seeing the Transformation from Tashkent

From August 23–28, 2026, I had the privilege of participating in the International Media Forum, “Islamic Civilization: A New Perspective — New Discoveries,” held in Tashkent and Samarkand. Representing Sweden and Agenda Nexus, I joined an international gathering of journalists, researchers, media professionals, writers, and experts from around the world to exchange perspectives on culture, knowledge, communication, and Uzbekistan’s growing role in an increasingly interconnected world.

The timing was significant. Around 300 journalists, media executives, scholars, researchers, producers, and other professionals from nearly 50 countries gathered as Uzbekistan approached the celebration of its 35th anniversary of independence. The scale and international diversity made the forum one of the most notable global media gatherings of 2026.

Yet what mattered most was not simply the number of participants. It was what Uzbekistan wanted the international community to see: a country increasingly confident enough to connect its ancient civilization with its modern ambitions.

That combination has become central to the New Uzbekistan.

Mirziyoyev and an Eastern Renaissance

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has been the principal political architect of Uzbekistan’s transformation since 2016.

Agenda Nexus has previously examined this transformation through education, economic modernization, international connectivity, cultural diplomacy, sustainability, and Uzbekistan’s changing international identity. Taken together, these developments suggest something larger than a collection of individual reforms.

They represent an attempt at national renewal.

Uzbekistan itself increasingly uses the concept of a Third Renaissance to connect the intellectual achievements of figures such as Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ulugh Beg, and Alisher Navoi with a new generation centered on education, science, technology, and knowledge.

Mirziyoyev’s leadership can therefore be understood through the concept of an Eastern Renaissance: not as a return to the past, but as an effort to use historical confidence as a foundation for modernization.

This is an ambitious political project. Its ultimate success will depend on implementation, institutional capacity, accountability, and whether improvements continue to reach ordinary citizens. But the direction and scale of change are increasingly difficult to overlook.

A Decade That Changed Uzbekistan

The transformation is visible in measurable outcomes.

Uzbekistan has opened its economy, liberalized important parts of its currency, tax, customs, and investment systems, strengthened regional relations, expanded international engagement, and invested substantially in infrastructure and human capital.

The World Bank reports real GDP growth of 7.7 percent in 2025, following 6.7 percent in 2024. Uzbekistan’s government reports that annual foreign investment, once measured at approximately $2–3 billion, has risen dramatically, while the country expects to surpass an earlier $160 billion GDP target ahead of schedule.

Education illustrates the social dimension of this transformation. Preschool enrollment has reached 78 percent, approximately 1.5 million additional school places have been created over the past decade, and university enrollment has expanded to approximately 1.6 million students. More than half are women.

This matters strategically. A modern economy cannot be constructed through buildings and investment alone. Its most important infrastructure is human capital.

Seven Programs for the Next Decade

At the 35th Independence Anniversary, President Mirziyoyev declared the coming decade a period of national advancement and presented seven national programs.

The first makes knowledge and skills the principal capital of national development. Uzbekistan aims for universal preparatory education for six-year-olds, international assessment across schools, expanded vocational education, and at least ten universities entering the global top 1,000.

The second places health and longevity at the center of development, including plans to increase health-related public expenditure to 5 percent of GDP and expand national health insurance.

The third seeks a transition toward a high-technology, high-productivity economy, targeting $450 billion in foreign investment over the coming decade, a $300 billion economy by 2030, two million high-income industrial jobs, and expanded ecosystems for startups, venture capital, and artificial intelligence.

The fourth addresses water and environmental sustainability, including universal adoption of water-saving technologies across agricultural land and expanded urban greenery.

The fifth focuses on judicial independence and rule of law, including stronger legal protections for citizens and businesses.

The sixth gives the traditional mahallaa greater role in shaping local budgets, investment, infrastructure, and community development.

The seventh seeks to strengthen Uzbekistan internationally as a country of peace, friendship, tolerance, and balanced diplomacy.

Together, these programs constitute more than a development checklist. They outline a model connecting human capital, economic modernization, social welfare, environmental resilience, justice, local participation, and foreign policy.

Where Heritage Meets Progress

Perhaps nowhere is Uzbekistan’s emerging identity more visible than at the Center for Islamic Civilization in Tashkent.

The Center represents an important idea: modernization does not require abandoning history.

Uzbekistan possesses one of Eurasia’s richest intellectual and cultural inheritances. The challenge is transforming that inheritance from something preserved primarily in museums and monuments into a living source of knowledge, dialogue, education, and international cooperation.

The International Media Forum demonstrated this potential. Its discussions brought international media organizations, researchers, filmmakers, publishers, technology specialists, and cultural professionals together around questions of heritage, science, media, artificial intelligence, and global communication.

The Center can consequently become more than a museum. Properly developed as an intellectually open international institution, it can serve as a meeting place where different perspectives, cultures, religions, and scholarly traditions encounter one another through serious dialogue.

For Uzbekistan, that is also soft power.

From Central Asian State to Connecting Power

Uzbekistan’s transformation has another dimension: geography.

Central Asia is becoming increasingly important to Europe, China, Türkiye, the Gulf, South Asia, and the wider Eurasian economy. Uzbekistan sits at the heart of this emerging network.

Mirziyoyev’s pragmatic foreign policy has improved relations with neighboring Central Asian states while simultaneously expanding engagement with Europe, the United States, Asia, and the Arab-Muslim world. Uzbekistan now maintains diplomatic relations with nearly 170 countries and will chair the Non-Aligned Movement for the first time in 2027–2029.

This balanced approach gives Tashkent an opportunity to become not merely a participant in regional affairs but a connecting power: economically, diplomatically, culturally, and intellectually.

The Next Test of Leadership

Successful reform is never completed by declaration.

The next stage will require effective implementation, stronger institutions, continued rule-of-law development, transparent governance, educational quality, environmental resilience, private-sector growth, and greater opportunities for younger generations.

These are precisely the areas where the seven national programs become strategically important.

President Mirziyoyev’s legacy will ultimately be measured not only by how dramatically Uzbekistan changed during his presidency, but by whether those changes become durable institutions capable of continuing beyond any individual leader.

That is the defining challenge of transformative leadership.

From an Agenda Nexus perspective, Uzbekistan deserves considerably greater attention from European policymakers, universities, investors, research institutions, and international organizations.

The country emerging today is neither abandoning its history nor allowing itself to be defined by it.

It is attempting something more ambitious: turning heritage into confidence, confidence into reform, and reform into a modern national renaissance.

If the next decade delivers on the ambitions presented at the 35th Independence Anniversary, Shavkat Mirziyoyev may increasingly be remembered not simply as the president who reformed Uzbekistan, but as a leader who helped initiate a new Eastern Renaissance.

Looking Ahead

Agenda Nexus wishes President Shavkat Mirziyoyev continued success in advancing Uzbekistan’s ambitious vision for national development, modernization, and international cooperation.

At a time of geopolitical uncertainty and growing global division, the world needs leaders who believe in progress, knowledge, dialogue, and the possibility of building a better future for their people and for generations to come. Leadership that seeks to transform ambition into opportunity and national progress into wider cooperation deserves international attention.

Uzbekistan has entered an important new chapter. The ambitions are substantial, and their long-term success will ultimately be measured by implementation, institutional strength, and improvements in people’s lives.

Agenda Nexus – Research & Policy Institute will continue to follow and analyze Uzbekistan’s transformation closely, both from Sweden and through engagement on the ground in Uzbekistan.

We look forward to following the country’s next chapter and wish President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the people of Uzbekistan every success as they work toward their vision of a modern, prosperous, peaceful, and internationally connected New Uzbekistan.