Uzbekistan celebrated 35 years of independence from the Soviet Union with large-scale festivities in New Tashkent (a vast urban development under construction alongside the existing capital, designed to eventually house two million people), ahead of the country's official Independence Day on 1 September. Thousands attended an evening of live music, 3D projections, robotic performances and a drone light show, with international artists including British soprano Sarah Brightman, Italian tenor Alessandro Safina and Spanish tenor José Carreras performing alongside Uzbek singers and dancers. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev used the occasion to tout a decade of economic reforms — citing a rise in annual foreign investment from $2–3 billion to $40–50 billion and a drop in poverty from 35% to 4% — and announced seven programmes for the coming decade targeting education, healthcare, the environment and foreign policy, including a goal to attract $450 billion in foreign investment and grow GDP to $300 billion by 2030.