BY Timur Kurbanklichev
From January 23-25, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev paid a state visit to the People’s Republic of China.
The program of the visit of the Head of state was rich in meetings with business circles and business representatives, the agenda of which included issues of developing relations with China in a wide variety of areas, where the financial and economic sphere deserves special attention.
It should be noted that there has been a high dynamic of trade and economic cooperation development between Uzbekistan and China in recent years. Last year alone, mutual trade turnover between the countries increased by 50%, reaching $14 billion. And this is far from the limit.
Tashkent and Beijing have every reason to increase this figure to $20 billion 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. Last year, Chinese investments in Uzbekistan’s economy exceeded $14 billion.
In other words, both states have already formed a solid foundation, which 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 China. 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 Uzbekistan and developing cooperation in essential sectors of the economy.
Among the most essential 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 and attract additional investment flows.
One of the key events during the visit to China was the participation of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Uzbekistan – China Investment Forum in Shenzhen. The event, grand in scale, brought together a solid composition of participants from among the heads of agencies and regions of the two countries and more than 600 representatives of large Chinese businesses.
Among them are the top management of 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:
first, 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;
second, attracting advanced Chinese technologies in sustainable agriculture and introducing scientific approaches to land rehabilitation and cultivation of salt-tolerant plants;
third, further promotion of strategic partnerships in green energy and the participation of Chinese companies in the privatization program.
An essential 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 serve as a reliable factor for increasing the efficiency of implementing joint Uzbekistan – China projects.
As part of his speech, the Leader of Uzbekistan put forward an initiative to organize the Guangdong Investment Forum annually, proposing to hold its next meeting next year in 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 and develop the entire range of bilateral relations between the two countries.
Following the business forum, a substantial package of documents was signed on implementing projects in 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 highly fruitful. It is expected that the signed agreements and the agreements reached following the meetings will strengthen the foundation of trade, economic, and investment cooperation between Uzbekistan and China.
In turn, an increase in financial investments from outside and the attraction of advanced Chinese technologies will allow the modernization of Uzbekistan’s energy and transport infrastructure and reorient the country’s industry towards producing goods with high added value. Source Uza. (The author is a leading Researcher at ISRS under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan)
