Through its interventions, the World Bank is addressing issues in the water supply, health and sanitation sectors, strengthening social protection and the provision of social services, and the restructuring in agriculture. The World Bank has been taking a lead in health, banking and finance, urban development, environment, and the social safety net, while ADB has taken the lead role in the education, railways, and road sector reforms. In the agriculture sector, ADB and the World Bank have been working closely to provide a consistent set of policy advice. Building on operational experiences in the past, the World Bank is currently initiating a new country assistance strategy for 2001 - 2003. ADB and EBRD have coordinated support for the railway sector.
Close coordination is also active in the road and financial and SME sectors.
The Japanese Government's bilateral assistance program has provided the largest international funding for Uzbekistan with a focus on energy, telecommunications, transport, environment, and human development. Since then, the Japanese Government has limited processing new loan project assistance, although two loans were provided by JBIC to finance phase II extension of the existing local airports and telecommunication projects. The Japan International Cooperation Agency opened a regional office in Tashkent in 1999, providing grant programs covering medical equipment, road construction and maintenance equipment, environment, and training and capacity building. Despite a lack of formal consultative group meetings since 1996, aid agency activities on the whole have been complementary and involve close coordination and collaboration. Since January 1998, ADB's resident mission in Tashkent has enabled effective coordination and communication with other resident donors.