"There should be no loopholes in the rules!" - the economist made his proposal regarding taxi services
We need to create a balanced offer in our labor market for our migrant workers who have returned and are returning from the North.
"There should be no loopholes in the rules!" - economist offers his proposal for taxi services
Economist Otabek Bakirov has proposed introducing a requirement that only Uzbeks work in taxi and delivery services in Uzbekistan. The expert justified this measure by the need to ensure the work of Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and the obligation of employers to prioritize the selection of our compatriots in the face of the increasingly complicated geopolitical situation.
“The events and signals that are emerging show that the situation in the north will worsen further in the coming months and the escalation will only increase. We need to create a balanced offer in our labor market for our labor migrants who have returned and are returning from the north. There are all the opportunities for this. First of all, it is necessary to stop attracting conditional Indian and Bangladeshi workers in large industrial and infrastructure projects... only Uzbeks should be used at the lower and middle levels, that's all. Let the top management freely choose engineering and technical positions, for which there is not enough offer in Uzbekistan. Simply put, Uzbeks should be accepted as a priority workforce both at the 4th and 5th factories in Almalyk, on the Tashkent-Samarkand road, in the construction of a new airport, and in countless projects of New Tashkent,” wrote O. Bakirov, among others.
According to the expert, this requirement should apply not only to industrial and infrastructure projects, but also to agriculture, construction and banking.
“There are some banks, it is not necessary to name them, that have hired and continue to hire people from the north, even for middle and lower-middle positions, with high salaries, despite the fact that there is a sufficiently qualified offer on the market. Neither the Ministry of Labor nor the Central Bank pay any attention to this at all...
The rules for attracting and using labor from abroad should be changed. If necessary, at the level of the law. The current rules are completely outdated and do not reflect the current economic, social and political realities. The rules should set clear prohibitions and criteria that leave no loopholes, and priorities should be approved.
At the same time, one of the measures that should be urgently implemented is the requirement that only Uzbeks be employed in taxi and delivery services,” the economist believes.
As we previously reported, on the morning of August 10, 2026, 8 Uzbek citizens working as builders died as a result of a drone attack on a number of facilities located in the city of Nizhnekamsk, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation, and several more of our compatriots were hospitalized with injuries of varying degrees.
“Our compatriots who died in Nizhnekamsk could have worked in their homeland, in the bosom of their families,” said O. Bakirov, emphasizing the importance of the measures he is proposing.
The author of the “Mirkonomics” channel, economist Mirkomil Kholboyev, objected to his colleague’s proposal, saying that giving preference to Uzbeks in the labor market will not yield positive results in either the short or long term.
“Firstly, the number of foreigners working in our country is not that large. For example, according to the results of the population and agricultural census, the number of foreigners living in our country for more than a year is 56.9 thousand people...
Secondly, our compatriots working abroad mainly work in low-skilled jobs. Foreigners working in our country mainly work in highly skilled jobs (of course, there are exceptions). That is, in the current conditions, the chances of placing Uzbeks in our country instead of foreign workers are not high...
Thirdly, giving preference to local workers in the labor market may lead to further tightening of conditions in the labor markets where Uzbeks work,” wrote M. Kholboyev.
In his opinion, in the current geopolitical situation, the best way to protect our migrants is to achieve economic growth that creates more jobs.
It is worth noting that in the regions of Russia, migrant workers are gradually being banned from working in various sectors, for example, in taxi services.
In December 2025, the Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, signed a decree prohibiting migrants with patents from working as taxi drivers.
Previously, a similar ban was adopted in the Novosibirsk, Samara, Tula, Magadan, Chelyabinsk, Kaluga and Tyumen regions, as well as in Yakutia, Kamchatka and Crimea.
Earlier, Russian politician Sergei Mironov demanded the introduction of a visa regime with Central Asian countries, arguing that “everything has been taken over by foreigners”.
According to Russian politicians, the number of migrant children in schools should also be sharply reduced.