Zhangjiajie, a Chinese city, hosted the third Summit of business leaders of the Silk Road countries on the theme “A New Era of Openness, A New Platform for Development, A Beautiful New Hunan” in which the Uzbek delegation took part for the first time, “Dunyo” news agency reports.

At the event, Uzbekistan was represented by Rustam Kurbanov, Chairman of the Committee on Interethnic Relations and Friendly Contacts with foreign countries and Zakir Abidov, head of the international relations department of this structure.

Participation in the summit allowed to expand the regulatory and legal framework of relations between Uzbekistan and the PRC, as well as intensify cultural and humanitarian ties.

In particular, in the framework of the summit of the International tourism forum, a presentation of Uzbekistan’s tourism potential was presented. Its participants highly appreciated the ongoing large-scale reforms in this sector in our country, including a significant simplification of the visa procedure for citizens of the PRC, as well as the introduction of an e-visa issuance mechanism. As a result, at the general final meeting, Bukhara, Karshi, Samarkand, Tashkent cities and Tashkent region were admitted into the “Silk Road Cities Alliance” and also, received special certificates.

The Vice-Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Zhang Wei noted that the forum is of significant importance as it coincides with the five-year anniversary of the announcement of the strategy “One belt, one road”, which accommodates an increasing number of participating countries.