Monthly Meeting with USAID Mission Director Mikaela Meredith

On February 3, 2022, American Chamber of Commerce in Uzbekistan organized an Online Monthly Meeting with a special guest – Mikaela Meredith, first Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in Uzbekistan and her team Iulia Sandu, first PSE Coordinator, Scott Hedlund, Economic Growth Office Director, Bahtiyor Mirzabaev, Project Management Specialist and Melissa Scherer, PRO Office Director who spoke about “USAID – Private Sector Partnering for Greater Impact”.
It was mentioned that USAID is an independent government agency, whose purpose is to administer civilian foreign aid and development assistance, which assists more than 130 countries. Since 1993, USAID has invested $536 million in Uzbekistan, including $24 million that was allocated to Uzbekistan’s development assistance programs last year to the areas of:
• public education
• public health
• democracy governance
• economic growth

The meeting was focused on USAID priorities that could attract the attention of private sector companies:

• Private Sector Engagement is a top priority for USAID Uzbekistan.
• USAID is working on finalizing the development of the first bilateral strategy for Uzbekistan 2022-2025, with Private sector engagement as priority and cross cutting theme
• Creating and strengthening relationships with key stakeholders including AmCham members
• Establishment and support to the Private Sector Judicial Reform Advisory Council, composed of members of business community representatives of Uzbekistan, with AmCham as a primary interlocutor.
• Opportunities for co-investment in the sectors of:
– Agro- business
– Women empowerment
– Market development fund
At the end of the session, Executive Director of AmCham Uzbekistan Tatyana Bystrushkina held a Q&A session where guests asked questions to the speakers.
AmCham Uzbekistan Monthly Meetings is a high-level policy dialogue between private sector and government of Uzbekistan, IFI’s and diplomatic corps that enables direct access to high level officials