Uzbek president appoints his daughter to head special economic zone

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Thursday appointed his influential daughter 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, though politics in Central Asia’s most populous country, which has almost 40-million people, remains tightly controlled.

Saida Mirziyoyeva has publicly championed the reforms as a top adviser to her father.

In June Mirziyoyev announced 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.