The President noted that the Uzbek-Swiss relations were developing intensively and that the meeting was a good opportunity to discuss various issues of bilateral cooperation.

The Swiss Federal Councillor said her country highly valued relations with Uzbekistan and was interested in their further development.

Switzerland was one of the first European states to open its diplomatic mission in Tashkent. The economic relations between the two states are based on a number of intergovernmental agreements on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, stimulation and mutual protection of investments and avoiding double taxation.

About 100 joint ventures with participation of Swiss investments are operating in Uzbekistan. Besides, 35 companies have their representative offices in the country. Credit Suisse bank has been running its representative office in Tashkent since 1995.

A number of joint socioeconomic projects are being implemented by the countries in the framework of the technical, financial and humanitarian cooperation agreement.

More than 20 projects of national and regional importance have been implemented in the past years, and more than 10 projects are currently being implemented in the fields of creation and repairs of water and heat supply systems, and development of professional education.

During the meeting, Islam Karimov and Micheline Calmy-Rey also considered important international and regional problems.