Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – On 3 November, the next 10th summit of the heads of countries of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) took place in Astana. Speaking at the event, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev emphasized important areas for the development of multifaceted relationships and the effective functioning of OTS. At the same time, issues of expanding the economic agenda occupied a key place in the speech of the President of our country.

In particular, the leader of Uzbekistan welcomed the start of work of the Turkic Investment Fund. The need to intensify work on the creation of the Turkic Development Bank was noted and readiness was expressed to locate this financial institution in Tashkent.

The President of our country also supported the practical work on organizing the Research Center for Trade Cooperation of Turkic States, noting the need for effective use of the structure’s capabilities.

According to him, in the future, the participating countries of the OTS must jointly implement specific measures aimed at eliminating barriers to trade, the widespread introduction of new mechanisms for increasing export and import volumes, and the development of e-commerce platforms.

The demand for the above initiatives of the President of Uzbekistan can be explained by the following factors.

Firstly, the emergence of new instruments and mechanisms for trade and economic cooperation and their full implementation meets the interests, without exception, of all OTS countries. Since this can contribute to the effective implementation of the potential of cooperation and further improvement of the overall economic indicators of the participating states. This prospect is due to the complementary nature of the economies of the Turkic states, which makes the OTS space self-sufficient and resistant to external shocks.

In addition, in recent years, with the improvement of the general economic indicators of the participating states, the role of the Organization in the global economy has been increasing. Thus, the total GDP of member and observer countries of the OTS over the past 10 years has increased by 10% (from US$1.4 trillion to US$1.53 trillion). As a result, today the share of the total Gross Product of its members in world GDP is about 1.6%, and according to PPP - 3% of the world (about US$4.5 trillion). At an even faster pace, OTS participants are strengthening their positions in the international trade system. In 2022, compared to 2012, the total volume of foreign trade of OTS increased by 40% (from US$785 billion to US$1.2 trillion - about 4% of global trade).

All of the above factors create favorable preconditions for the formation of a common space of economic prosperity with a capacious and integrated market.

Realizing this, the President of Uzbekistan puts forward proposals that will contribute to the beginning of a new stage of economic partnership and enrich the potential of cooperation with specific practical content.

Secondly, maintaining the huge untapped potential for cooperation in the trade and economic sphere. In 2022, mutual trade between the OTS countries reached more than US$50 billion. This figure is just over 4% of the total share of the Organization’s total trade turnover with the outside world.

In this regard, its participants are focused on strengthening economic cooperation. Similar goals were reflected in the Vision 2040 strategic document. As part of the implementation of this concept, active cooperation is being carried out in various directions.

In particular, the created Investment Fund became the first financial structure of the OTS. The presence of such an instrument will allow members of the Organization to finance joint economic projects. In this regard, the main beneficiary of the development of this form of interaction is private business, which should become the driver of economic growth of the Turkic states.

In addition to the above, a consensus has been reached on the creation of the OTS Development Bank, which could bring the process of institutionalization of economic partnership to a new stage.

This will also speed up the process of creating joint economic projects, combining the potential of the private sector and will serve to strengthen business activity in the OTS space.

For this reason, the President of Uzbekistan again focused on the need to intensify work on creating a joint bank with headquarters in Tashkent.

Thirdly, the increasing importance of the participating countries of the OTS in ensuring sustainable economic growth of Uzbekistan. This is evident from the positive dynamics of foreign trade of our state with the countries of OTS, the volume of which in 2022 increased by 9.4%, amounting to 10.3 billion. As a result, today Turkic countries account for more than 20% of the total foreign trade turnover of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Most importantly, the countries of the Organization represent an extensive consumer market for industrial goods of Uzbekistan, which exports the bulk of finished products in this direction: textiles, electrical equipment, automobiles and fruits and vegetables. Such dynamics show the significant role of OTS in the full disclosure of the production and industrial potential of our Republic.

In this context, it is necessary to dwell separately on the trend of transforming OTS countries into important sources of investment resources for the growing economy of Uzbekistan. In 2017-2022 OTS member states invested US$3.7 billion in the country. This is 8% of the total volume of foreign investment during this period, of which 30.5% or US$1.2 billion were attracted only in 2022 (6.1 % of total foreign investment for this period).

In parallel with this, the number of enterprises with the participation of OTS finance is increasing. Today their number in Uzbekistan is 3333 unitsm – about 28% of the total number of enterprises with foreign capital. Growth in the number of OTS enterprises in Uzbekistan for the period 2019-2023 was about 50%.

All of the above factors together show the growing importance of OTS in further ensuring high rates of economic growth and unlocking the human and resource potential of the Republic.

In this regard, Uzbekistan attaches priority importance to strengthening the trade and economic partnership within the framework of the OTS.

Since 2019, our country has launched 52 initiatives. One third of these proposals are devoted to expanding the economic agenda. The practical implementation of these proposals can create new drivers for the economic growth of the Turkic states and is in tune with the strategic goals, without exception, of all countries in the OTS space.

This is the uniqueness of the initiatives of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, whose proposals contribute to the general inclusive prosperity of the Turkic world and the promotion of the interests of the OTS member states. It is no coincidence that for these services the leader of Uzbekistan was awarded the “Highest Order of the Turkic World” at the summit in Astana.

In general, Uzbekistan is becoming a driving force for expanding economic cooperation within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States, which has gone through a successful stage of transformation from a cultural community to a union of states with common interests in the economic sphere. This trend makes the OTS platform even more attractive for Uzbekistan, taking into account the strategic goals of the country’s leadership to fully integrate the economy into global economic relations and improve the well-being of citizens.

Aziz Karimov,

Leading Researcher

Institute of Strategic and Interregional

research under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan