Improving the Management and Financing Mechanisms of Investment Activities in Radio Communication and Television Centres in the Digital Economy (ECONOSCITECH INTEGRATION)

Summary

• The length of fibre-optic lines in Uzbekistan reached 346.6 thousand km by 2025.p.4
• The number of mobile base stations in Uzbekistan expanded to 98.7 thousand by 2025.p.4
• Investment in communications reached 3.1 trillion UZS in the first quarter of 2026, with 77% coming from foreign investment.p.4
• Multi-criteria portfolio selection with a service continuity constraint yields a weighted score S of 8.35 and requires 200.0 bn UZS in investment.p.6
• Under financial selection rules (NPV ranking, PI ranking, Maximum NPV), the selected investment portfolio yields an NPV of 71.0 bn UZS.p.6
• Matching financing sources to project characteristics increases the portfolio NPV from 7.9 to 69.3 billion UZS.p.8
• Fulfilling the service continuity constraint entails a cost equivalent to 8.5% of the maximum NPV.p.8

Key insights

1. A two-stage portfolio approach combines multi-criteria project selection with matching financing sources to individual projects.p.4
2. Selecting projects purely by financial ranking excludes critical infrastructure replacements like high-power transmitters.p.6
3. Matching specific project types with concessional funding sources like green loans and vendor finance raises net present value almost ninefold compared to traditional equity and commercial loans.p.4
4. Concessional financing sources carry lower costs, such as budget funds at 0%, green loans at 8%, vendor finance at 10%, and IFI loans at 12%.p.6
5. Commercial loans in UZS represent the most expensive financing source at 22%, followed by own funds at 18%.p.6
6. The Modigliani–Miller irrelevance proposition does not hold for public broadcasting enterprises in emerging markets due to high commercial borrowing costs.p.7
7. Maintaining broadcasting service continuity can be achieved with a limited reduction in financial return equivalent to 8.5% of maximum NPV.p.8