The ADB delegation will be led by Vice President Xiaoyu Zhao, together with Juan Miranda, Director General for Central and West Asia Department (CWRD); Philip Erquiaga, Director General for Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD); Werner Liepach, CWRD Deputy Director General; and other senior officers.

The IDB Group delegation will be headed by Khaled Al Aboodi, General Manager and CEO for Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector (ICD) and Dr. Walid Abdelwahab, IDB Director for Infrastructure Department.

ADB and IDB are committed to financing infrastructure and utility projects in Uzbekistan, and welcome proposals from private and public sponsors as well as public-private partnerships.

The Government of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector, a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, will host the Navoi Free Industrial and Economic Zone (FIEZ) Investment Forum on 21 - 23 October 2009 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The Forum will bring together a network of global investors to discover a range of unique investment opportunities in Uzbekistan. The Government is inviting partners in high-tech and export-oriented sectors to take advantage of the region’s rich resources and unprecedented tax and customs privileges at the Navoi FIEZ.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has signed a decree on setting up a free industrial and economic zone (FIEZ) in Navoi region in December 2008. The FIEZ would be set up in the area of Navoi international airport.

The main area of the activities of the economic entities at the Navoi free industrial and economic zone is specified with the manufacturing of a wide range of high-tech, competitive products on the world market through introducing up-to-date highly productive foreign equipment and machines, technological lines and modules, as well as innovative technologies.