New season of “Open Budget” program begins

The first season of the 2026 “Initiative Budget” program officially began on February 1, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

It was reported that this season marks the tenth, jubilee edition since the introduction of the Initiative Budget process.

Under the current timeline, project submissions will be accepted from February 1 to 20, followed by the project selection stage from February 21 to March 7. The promotion phase will take place from March 8 to 10, while voting will be held from March 11 to 20. The announcement of additional winning projects is scheduled for March 21–31.

In addition, based on the results of the main voting stage, winning projects will be announced on March 21, which coincides with the Navruz holiday.

For reference, since March 2024, a “one citizen – one vote” system has been introduced in the initiative budgeting process to ensure fair competition during voting. In cooperation with the Digital Government Projects Management Center, a system for voter identification has been implemented to ensure that only one vote per citizen is accepted.

Alikulov Javohir