The fifth Tashkent International Investment Forum closed on 18 June after three days built around a EUR 75 billion project pipeline, the Foreign Investors Council plenary and a run of bilateral meetings. The final tally of agreements signed at this edition had not been published by Friday morning, leaving last year's $30.5 billion as the standing benchmark. Forums of this kind usually release the closing figure within days, and CAW will update when it lands.
A different figure is the more useful one. Investment minister Laziz Kudratov said Uzbekistan absorbed about EUR39 billion in actual investment in 2025, and that roughly 35% of projects signed at earlier forums are already in implementation. That conversion rate, the share of memoranda that become real projects, is the question this desk has put to every forum story this week. A 35% rate is neither trivial nor transformational; it is the honest middle, and it is the number returning investors will weigh against the next round of pledges.
About 35% of projects signed at earlier forums are in implementation. That rate, not the headline pledge, is the measure.
The institutional follow-through is where the rest is decided. Officials say a reform roadmap was adopted at the Foreign Investors Council, and the legislation establishing the Tashkent International Financial Centre is expected before the end of June, along with a revised Special Economic Zones law and rules for venture and private-equity instruments. These are the mechanisms that move a deal from signature to construction. Whether they clear on schedule is the test of how much of this week's pitch becomes capital.
Uzbekistan's week was loud and largely successful on its own terms: a head-of-state plenary, Germany's president in the room, a London listing, a World Cup goal for atmosphere. The conversion rate is the quiet reminder that the work starts after the forum empties. Tashkent has built the best investment showcase in the region. The next year decides what it was worth.