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For years, Uzbekistan was one of the world's most closed and oppressive countries. With thousands of political prisoners and restrictions on the media, the central Asian country ranked alongside North Korea for its political rights and civil liberties.
But now, Uzbekistan is changing. Following the death of dictator Islam Karimov in 2016, the new government has embarked on a surprising and radical programme of reform.
Currency controls have been lifted, and the government is trying to overhaul the economy, cut red tape, and boost investment. Foreign investors are now tip-toeing in.
Since the government announced its reforms, we've had a lot of interest from foreign investors, including institutional investors, the strategic investors, and actually those who are willing to take more risk - the opportunistic ones. And I can tell you, the fact that we removed the visa requirements for about, I think, 40 countries, have helped.
With interest rates at very low levels around the world, some in the west see an extremely rare opportunity for high returns by tapping a practically untouched market.
We're basically among the first, earliest institutional investors. There's been recent reforms, which means that the country is opening up.
And Uzbekistan is undergoing its own fall of the Berlin Wall moment. And there's very successful and dynamic entrepreneurs taking advantage of this situation.
The Financial Times travelled to Uzbekistan as the sole media organisation, accompanying one of the very first delegations of western investors, meeting newly appointed government ministers and entrepreneurs, hungry in the capital.
So this is now one of the very few opportunities in the world where the capital market - it's ground zero. Laws are being written. New products are being created. Companies are being privatised. They are being restructured. They're going to get massive changes in the corporate law.
So whereas that poses some challenges, of course, for investors, this is also where the opportunity lies. And that's why you have to investigate a country like Uzbekistan right now when things are still emerging, in the true sense of the word.
In the ancient city of Samarkand, entrepreneur Kamol Abdulloev runs one of the world's largest carpet factories. He is reluctant to criticise the old regime, but says the economy was comparatively closed while getting foreign exchange was a problem. Now, however, conditions are different.
It's still very early days for Uzbekistan. International investors will want to see much more evidence of reforms. But if the country continues on this path, then more western capital is likely to arrive.
