European Economic Integration and the Future of Uzbekistan’s State Enterprises: Strategic Reforms, Institutional Convergence, and New Opportunities for Sustainable Growth

As Uzbekistan expands its international economic orientation, the issue of modernizing state enterprises increasingly intersects with the country’s strategic shift toward cooperation with Europe. This article examines the transformation of Uzbekistan’s state-owned enterprises within the broader context of regulatory harmonization, market transparency, and institutional reforms oriented toward eventual integration with the European economic system. We argue that privatization, ownership restructuring, and competitive market liberalization should not merely be seen as internal modernization tools, but as necessary steps to align Uzbek economic governance and business practices with European standards of accountability, legal stability, and investment security. Theoretical and historical analysis shows that the success of these reforms depends on understanding property relations as evolving social institutions shaped by cultural, political, and global market dynamics. European integration thus represents both a challenge and an opportunity: it demands deep restructuring of state-enterprise governance while simultaneously offering access to capital, technology, and new export markets for Uzbekistan. In contemporary economic policy discourse, the reduction of excessive state participation in the economy—combined with the opening of markets and stimulation of competition—has become an important foundation for countries seeking deeper integration into the European economic space. For Uzbekistan, the modernization of state enterprises is not only a domestic reform project but also a prerequisite for aligning national economic practices with those institutional norms that characterize successful European market economies.