New Sales Market for Swiss SMEs in Uzbekistan
Several SMEs spanning a variety of sectors are involved in the expansion of a holiday resort in Uzbekistan. Some of these SMEs are exporting for the first time, and this has been made possible by an insurance policy from SERV.
05.04.2022
Not far from the Uzbek capital Tashkent, chalets – like those in the Swiss Alps – adorn the picturesque landscape of the foothills of the Chatkal Mountains. This is the Amirsoy holiday resort, which has been in operation since 2019. As business is good, the operator is planning to expand the resort. This includes building a new hotel and a gondola cableway lift leading from the valley station to the middle station. The resort is being supplied by several Swiss SMEs, whose products are of the very highest quality – from the builder of the cableway, the interior fitter and the furniture manufacturer to the producer of custom-made awnings and the developer of wellness facilities.
SERV’s backing creates trust
Some of these companies are family businesses that are exporting their goods for the very first time. These export deliveries are a necessary precondition if the transactions are to be insured by SERV. Only in this way can the general contractor Mountech AG (“Mountech”) help the buyer obtain financing on favourable terms. A down payment of only 15 per cent is planned on a total order value of CHF 35 million. The remaining 85 per cent will be financed by the bank in the form of a buyer’s loan over a term of six years at favourable conditions. This is possible thanks to SERV’s insurance, which is indirectly linked to the Swiss Confederation’s AAA credit rating and is thus considered to be low risk. Having SERV backing also comes with other advantages.
Approaching Swiss suppliers was not always easy, Marika Pechr, Project Manager at Mountech, explains: “Many viewed the project with scepticism as the destination country of Uzbekistan was an unknown quantity to them. It was very helpful to be able to say that SERV, the federal export credit agency under public law, was insuring our project. That created a considerable amount of trust and confidence.” Another important factor was giving advice to exporters who were inexperienced in foreign trade matters. “This was another area where SERV was able to help. I could simply refer to SERV’s advisors when questions about things such as content requirements came up. That was a great weight off my shoulders,” Marika Pechr says.
A local recreation area for everyone
However, it is not only the Swiss SMEs who will profit from this project – the main beneficiaries will be the people of Uzbekistan: the resort, which is designed with year-round tourism in mind, employs 500 people. In addition to the accommodation on offer, which attracts visitors from all over the world, the resort, with its many new leisure activities, is also a recreation area for the local population and is situated only an hour’s drive from Tashkent. A cooling visit to the mountains is a welcome diversion, particularly in the summer months when temperatures in the lowlands quickly reach the 40-degree mark.
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