“I would like to wish further prosperity and progress to Uzbek people in the New Year. Your country has achieved a lot in the past years and these positive processes will certainly continue in future,” he added.

Japanese ambassador to Uzbekistan, Tsutomu Hiraoka, said “Uzbekistan has made many achievements in building a new state over the past years under the leadership of Islam Karimov and all these years Uzbekistan and Japan have developed comprehensive cooperation. These relations successfully continued in the current year which shows the increasing interest of Japanese firms and companies in establishing strong economic contacts. Thanks to the favourable investment climate in Uzbekistan and the government’s support to foreign investors, the Japanese businesses started to invest actively in Uzbekistan. A number of large investment projects were implemented in various sectors of economy this year.

“I would like to wish peace and prosperity to your people in the New Year. From my side, I promise to put in all efforts to ensure that the Uzbek-Japanese cooperation develops on equal basis and brings mutual benefit,” he concluded