The Central Bank of Uzbekistan held a press conference on "Mortgage credit: Implemented measures and long-term objectives to ensure public housing" at the National Press Center on Thursday.

Public housing is a key part of ongoing reforms in the country according to the Uzbek model of development, the bank said.

"This model successfully combines the goal of improving the standard of living, balanced economic growth, along with high and sustainable growth of macroeconomic development," the bank said.

As of September 1, approximately 58,500 families have taken out mortgages.

An international conference, "Modern housing as an engine of integrated development, the transformation of village and improving the quality of life of the population," held in Tashkent in the spring discussed some of the measures being used in Uzbekistan, the bank said.

As part of its program, from 2009-2012, more than 23.6 million individual residential buildings were developed in nearly 160 rural areas throughout the country.