Rights, equality of opportunities, striving for the well-being of every person are important and priority criteria for the sustainable development of the state and society.

The value and importance of this issue has increased in the current complex conditions prevailing in the world. Consequently, social inequality, the emergence of differences between different layers of the population can cause certain problems in the process of socio-economic development.

For the sustainable development of the economy, the state must ensure social justice, in other words, guarantee the comprehensiveness and consistency of social protection mechanisms.

According to the data published by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 1.4 billion children under the age of 15 do not have social rights. Only 29% of the world's population is adequately covered by social protection systems, while 55% is incomplete. It is known that in such conditions, the governments of a number of countries are focusing on strengthening the social policy of the state in order to curb the processes of the market economy that lead to social inequality and poverty. At the right time, it is worth noting that Uzbekistan is recognized today on world forums as a social state that cares for each of its citizens.

The reforms being carried out in the system in order to bring qualified and high-quality medical services to the population are, frankly, a bit difficult, but they are gradually showing progress. The dynamics of growth is also observed in all-round support for children, women, the elderly, persons with disabilities, migrants and their family members. In order to ensure the constitutional status of Uzbekistan as a social state, in addition to state management agencies, non-governmental institutions, the public, and mainly political parties, should be the first creators of well-thought-out, effective proposals and initiatives.

In this sense, there is a fact that the People's Democratic Party has been emphasizing on increasing the social efficiency of the market economy, and it has included clear, vital and popular proposals in this direction in the new election program. This is related to the goal of inculcating the ideas of humanity, equality in the reforms, putting social justice and solidarity above all else.

The active role and participation of the state is important

The People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan believes that it is important to develop the economy with a view to social stability. Because it is clear from the experience of the world that free market laws can sometimes cause social differences and inequality to take deep roots. This is an obstacle to building a social state. In addition, the main regulatory role of the state with effective governance stimulates market relations and brings socio-economic benefits. The process of regulating market relations and ensuring social equality cannot happen without the participation of the state.

However, we believe that the idea of ​​sharply reducing the state's participation in the economy and increasing the share of the private sector through the privatization of state property, which is promoted in the UzLiDeP election program, is contrary to our position. In our opinion, the participation of the state in the economy is necessary, the state should not give up its regulatory and initiative.

In addition, we cannot fully agree with the proposal to privatize state property. For example, the transfer of strategically important enterprises and factories to foreign investors can cause negative consequences. We think that this will have a negative impact on the management potential of the state and the mechanism of regulating social life.

Active participation of the state in the economy and social sphere plays an important role in ensuring economic security and strengthening social stability. In particular, state control over strategically important sectors such as energy, transport and defense industries does not allow them to fall under the control of foreign or private interests that may harm national interests.

The country's population is increasing by nearly one million every year, which puts the state under the obligation to build new schools and hospitals, and social infrastructure. Only the state can effectively solve large-scale tasks such as supporting employment, regulating the prices of basic goods and services, and protecting the needy sections of the population.

Effective state control allows limiting monopoly in the economy and ensuring fair competition, introducing new technologies, and attracting long-term investments in the fields of infrastructure development. The economic strategy of Uzbekistan envisages increasing the per capita income from 4 thousand US dollars by 2030 and becoming one of the 50 leading countries of the world in the ranking of the global innovation index, and developing human capital in order to achieve this ambitious goal. This will not happen by itself, the participation and control of the state is important.

Already, in Article 65 of our Constitution, which was updated last year, it was clearly established that the state creates conditions for the development of market relations and fair competition. It is not for nothing that the activists of the People's Democratic Party consider strengthening the main regulatory role of the state as a vital necessity in order to increase the effectiveness of social reforms in the conditions of the market economy.

A guarantee of stability and well-being

According to experts, a socially oriented market economy is a system that, on the one hand, is based on the principles of free market self-regulation, and on the other hand, ensures that private entrepreneurship and the non-state sector serve ordinary people. In this form of market economy, the state plays an important role in the redistribution of gross domestic product and national income.

If we look at the experience of the countries of the world, in the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway), Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, which are among the leaders in running a socially oriented market economy, it is considered an important basis for economic efficiency, the social responsibility of business is determined, and social protection is done.

In our country, the constitutional norms related to the obligations of the state in the social sphere have increased several times. In particular, to provide housing for the needy categories of the population, protect citizens from unemployment, reduce poverty, realize the right to guaranteed medical care, care for all forms of education, equal for all opportunities, all-round support for persons with disabilities has been strengthened. Naturally, in order to create a comfortable standard of living for everyone, establish decent working conditions and fair wages, pensions and allowances, social assistance and services, in other words, to implement the principles of social justice, the State budget is decisive. plays a role. Effective use of the state budget generated by taxes is more relevant than ever.

In our updated Constitution, legal guarantees were created to ensure the active participation of citizens and civil society institutions in the formation of the State budget, the determination and implementation of its revenue and expenditure components, and the implementation of public control in this direction. Taking into account all the above factors, the fact that the economic power of the state, first of all, is directly dependent on the budget, all receipts from the provision of public services by ministries and agencies or the imposition of fines on individuals and legal entities in accordance with the legally established procedure should be fully directed to the State budget. would be the correct solution in all respects at this time. This proposal gives an important impetus to the expansion of opportunities for the effective fulfillment of the state's social obligations.

When it comes to providing housing to needy categories of the population and their social protection, the "Adolat" party's proposal to improve the system of subsidies for realizing the rights of citizens to housing does not justify itself. In our opinion, there are other effective economic and social mechanisms in this regard. The People's Democratic Party proposes to build social housing in this direction, for example. The new mechanism we propose is more effective for needy, low-income citizens.

Ensuring social equality

The PDP believes that it is appropriate to introduce a fair taxation system for the excessive concentration of wealth, regardless of income and their sources. Such measures served to prevent economic stratification of the population in some developed countries. For example, in the USA, a 10% tax rate is applied to citizens with an annual income of less than $11,000, while those with an income of more than $578,000 pay a tax rate of 37%. In China, those who earn less than 36,000 yuan pay 3% tax, and those who earn more than 960,000 yuan pay 45% tax. In France, the combined income of family members is taken into account: those earning less than €11,294 pay no tax, but those earning more than €177,106 pay tax at a rate of 45 percent. A fair taxation system for the excessive concentration of wealth helps reduce social inequality by taxing individuals with high incomes and wealth. Therefore, paying such a tax does not affect the right of each person to own property, on the contrary, it allows to fulfill the noble civic duty of contributing to the social stability of the state and society. After all, social objects such as schools, kindergartens, hospitals, roads are built at the expense of the paid taxes, disabled people and needy people are supported.

Transparency is needed

Public procurement is an important process that reflects the quality of relations between the state, society and business. State bodies and institutions should use budget funds effectively. Today, the experience of developed countries in the world shows that it is difficult to achieve high results in terms of economic efficiency, fair competition between business entities, and the fight against corruption without improving the system of public procurement.

In our country, measures are being taken to align the public procurement system with the principle of openness and transparency, thereby combating corruption and its consequences, and the hidden economy. In this regard, regulatory legal documents are being improved and the procurement system is being digitized. At the same time, there are cases of violations of the law in the implementation of state procurement. In order to prevent such situations and have transparency, the most appropriate measures are to further expand the use of information and communication technologies in the field of public procurement, as well as to create a complex system of monitoring, analysis and control of compliance with the contractual obligations of the parties participating in the process. Strengthening public control in the field creates conditions for eliminating problems and shortcomings in the process of public procurement. As we can see, these interconnected processes ultimately lead to the effectiveness of the social protection system. The People's Democratic Party considers it very important to strengthen transparency and public control in the public procurement system.

"Barometer" of social policy

According to the International Labor Organization, in 2024, the number of unemployed in the world is expected to increase by two million, and the global unemployment rate will increase from the current 5.1% to 5.2%. In many of the G20 countries, disposable incomes are falling, and the decline in living standards caused by inflation is unlikely to be recoverable in the short term. This issue is very urgent in our country as well as in the world. In such conditions, state programs aimed at increasing the employment level of the population and reducing poverty are developed and implemented consistently. Therefore, the field of employment can be described as a "barometer" of social policy. It is noteworthy that in this field, sufficient experience has been accumulated in Uzbekistan, socio-economic activity has increased. But despite the changes, it is important to protect the interests of temporarily unemployed citizens, mainly young people and women. In this regard, the People's Democratic Party proposes to introduce a national model of compulsory social insurance for unemployment. It will be such a system that people who have difficulty finding a job, who have lost their jobs for various reasons, who are temporarily unemployed, will receive targeted support. At the same time, he encourages citizens to be socio-economically active rather than passive.

A locomotive of economic development

It is important to expand the flow of investments and create the necessary economic and legal conditions for the sustainable growth of our national economy. Any investor who wants to invest in our economy is primarily interested in conditions and opportunities. What benefits and preferences are provided is also important. Our economy has almost doubled in recent years. By the end of last year, this growth was 5.5 percent. Inflation dropped to 9 percent. Trade turnover indicators are increasing. The stability of the currency market and gold-currency reserves is maintained.

Investments are a strong driver of our economic development. In this context, it should be noted that it is urgent to further improve the mechanisms of support for local investors in order to make Uzbekistan a reliable and long-term partner for foreign investors. This is one of the important initiatives in our Election Program. Simply put, it is important to look at both the foreign investor and the local investor with the same eye. This is of great importance in expanding the production of exportable industrial products, deepening inter-sectoral cooperation and developing the added value chain. When it comes to reforming the economy and supporting local producers, some of the economic initiatives of the Election Program of the Ecological Party of Uzbekistan may have a negative impact on entrepreneurs, especially farmers. For example, the party's proposal to "reduce pesticide use by 50 percent by 2030" may cause certain difficulties for agricultural producers. Our farmers and peasants have to use pesticides to protect their plants from various pests and insects. Otherwise, the product may die or the crop may be damaged. In general, we believe that this proposal was raised by the Ecoparty without deep thought in terms of economic efficiency.

The conclusion is in place

In the period when the election propaganda campaign is in full swing, voters and our compatriots are closely familiarizing themselves with the program goals and ideas of political parties, studying and comparing them. At the current stage of the development of our economy, it is of urgent importance to increase the social efficiency of reforms, to create conditions and opportunities for each person to achieve his dreams and goals, and to increase the accountability of the state in terms of welfare. The election program of our party has put forward concrete, viable proposals and initiatives in this regard. Vote for the People's Democratic Party and its candidates for the social effectiveness of economic reforms!

Tolkin TORAKHONOV,

Deputy Chairman of the Central Council of the PDP of Uzbekistan,

Kyzilgul KASIMOVA,

Deputy of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis.

"Voice of Uzbekistan", 9.10.2024, #41