Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 23-25 January, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev made a state visit to the People’s Republic of China.

The program of the visit of the Head of our state was rich in meetings with business circles and business representatives, the agenda of which included issues of developing relations with the PRC in a wide variety of areas, where the financial and economic sphere deserves special attention.

It should be noted that in recent years there has been a high dynamic of development of Uzbek-Chinese trade and economic cooperation. Last year alone, mutual trade turnover between the countries increased by 50%, reaching US$14 billion.

And this is far from the limit.

Tashkent and Beijing have every reason to increase this figure to US$20 billion, including by increasing mutual supplies of high-quality agricultural and industrial goods.

At the same time, an intensification of investment interaction can be observed between the countries. At the end of last year, the volume of Chinese investments in the economy of Uzbekistan exceeded US$14 billion.

In other words, both states have already formed a solid foundation, which, however, needs further development.

As part of the business program of the visit, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with the heads of leading companies and financial institutions of the PRC. Among them are the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, CNPC and CITIC corporations, the Export-Import Bank of China, the Silk Road Fund, SANY and CSG companies. Discussions touched upon the issues of increasing the portfolio of joint projects in our country and developing cooperation in critical sectors of the economy.

Among the most important agreements was the opening of a regional branch of Eximbank in Tashkent. It is expected that this step will help increase the efficiency of financing joint projects, as well as attract additional investment flows.

One of the key events during the visit to China was the participation of President Sherzod Mirziyoyev in the Uzbek-Chinese Investment Forum in Shenzhen. The event, grand in scale, brought together a solid lineup of participants from among the heads of departments and regions of the two countries, as well as more than 600 representatives of large Chinese businesses.

Among them are the top management of Chinese companies China Energy, Gezhouba Group, Huawei Technologies, BYD Auto Industry, Xinjiang Hualing Group TBEA, ZTE, etc.

In his speech, the leader of Uzbekistan outlined the most promising areas of cooperation with China, aimed at:

firstly, expanding partnerships with Chinese companies with the introduction of a simplified procedure for attracting funds from Chinese financial institutions for infrastructure development projects, industrial cooperation in priority sectors of the economy, including deep processing of strategic raw materials;

secondly, attracting advanced Chinese technologies in the field of sustainable agriculture and introducing scientific approaches to land rehabilitation and cultivation of salt-tolerant plants;

thirdly, further promotion of strategic partnerships in green energy and the participation of Chinese companies in the privatization program.

An important innovation for strengthening bilateral cooperation was the assignment of responsible investment managers to each Chinese partner, initiated at the forum by the leader of our country, which will certainly serve as a reliable factor for increasing the efficiency of the implementation of joint Uzbek-Chinese projects.

Also, as part of his speech, the Leader of Uzbekistan put forward an initiative to organize the Guangdong Investment Forum on an annual basis, proposing to hold its next meeting next year in the city of Samarkand.

The launch of such a platform will create a platform for regular contacts between entrepreneurs of the two countries, which will help strengthen ties between the business circles of Uzbekistan and China, as well as the development of the entire range of bilateral relations between our countries.

As a result of the business forum, a substantial package of documents was signed on the implementation of projects in the fields of energy, oil and gas, mining, electrical engineering, light industry, mechanical engineering, infrastructure development, agriculture, education, transport and logistics.

In general, it can be stated that the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan was extremely fruitful. It is expected that the signed agreements and the agreements reached following the meetings will strengthen the foundation of Uzbek-Chinese trade, economic and investment cooperation.

In turn, an increase in financial investments from outside, as well as the attraction of advanced Chinese technologies, will allow us to modernize the energy and transport infrastructure of Uzbekistan, and subsequently reorient our country’s industry towards the production of goods with high added value.

Timur Kurbanklichev,
Leading researcher at ISMI
under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan