Saida Mirziyoyeva has another new job. By presidential decree – that is, by order of her own father, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, whose administration she heads – Mirziyoyeva has been appointed manager of the Tashkent International Financial Center (TIFC). 

The TIFC was proposed in a March 2026 presidential decree as part of an effort to bring in long-term foreign direct investment. The financial center aims to attract investors in a range of industries from banking, investment, and insurance services to digital assets, Islamic finance, and green tech, in addition to professional services like auditing, legal counsel, and fintech. 

Signed into law in July, the TIFC will operate under a special legal regime, based on English law, with a unique regulatory framework and an independent commercial court.  With this arrangement, Uzbekistan seeks to address long-standing concerns foreign investors have had by carving out a legal space that isn’t governed strictly by Uzbek law.

In pursuit of attracting foreign investors, those engaged in the TIFC will reportedly be able to hire foreigners without obtaining the usually required work permits and take advantage of special entry visa options. They will be allowed use foreign currency or cryptocurrency for payments and other monetary obligations and will benefit from tax and customs breaks until 2076.

In announcing the signing of the law in July by Mirziyoyev, Mirziyoyeva said on social media, “This is one of the most important pieces of economic news of the year and the result of reforms that we pursued for almost ten years.” She went on to argue that the TIFC’s special structures “are the mechanisms to which global investors, banks, investment funds and international financial companies are accustomed. This new regulatory ecosystem should make the country more attractive for capital, modern financial services and major international projects.”

According to a Telegram statement posted by presidential press secretary Sherzod Asadov, as manager, Mirziyoyeva will organize the agenda and preside over meetings in the absence of the financial center’s chairman – the chairman is, by law, Mirziyoyev. She will coordinate the TIFC’s launch and represent the financial center in dealings with international organizations, investors and partners – both those abroad and in Uzbekistan. She will have the authority to conclude agreements, establish working groups and “engage experts.”

In June 2025, Mirziyoyeva was appointed head of the presidential administration, effectively becoming her father’s chief of staff. Uzbekistan’s government does not have a vice president post, making Mirziyoyeva the highest-ranking official after her father. In August 2026, Uzbekistan adopted a new law regulating the presidential administration that granted Mirziyoyeva sweeping new powers – everything from judicial reforms to anti-corruption, and an automatic seat on the Security Council – and lifetime immunity to boot. She holds an extraordinarily wide range of power while being subject to no accountability outside of her father’s opinion. 

Now she’s also in charge of Tashkent’s ambitious gambit to attract foreign investment.

Uzbekistan is not unique in turning to family to consolidate power. In neighboring Tajikistan, President Emomali Rahmon’s son, Rustam Emomali, holds a variety of important positions – he’s chairman of the National Assembly and also mayor of the capital, both posts he was appointed to by his father, in 2020 and 2017, respectively. As chairman of the Nation Assembly, Emomali is constitutionally next in line for the presidency, should his father resign or otherwise vacate the post. In Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov passed the presidency on to his son Serdar in 2022 before government changed its structure to give the elder Berdimuhamedov a new position technically above that of the president.

Nepotism may be political comforting for those in power, but’s not necessarily comforting for investors.