Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Malaysia Ravshan Usmanov held talks on April 16, 2019 with the Minister of Primary Industries of Malaysia Teresa Kok, the press service of the Foreign Ministry said.

During the talks, issues of further development of mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation were considered.

The Malaysian side was informed about large-scale economic reforms being carried out in Uzbekistan, including the liberalization of monetary policy, free economic zones, and favorable conditions for doing business, as well as modern agro-industrial and cotton-textile clusters being created in the republic.

Teresa Kok, noting the significant potential of the two countries, spoke in favor of intensifying trade relations and investment cooperation in various industries. She stressed that the rich resource potential and stable economic development of Uzbekistan, as well as ongoing policy in the country on modernizing and diversifying the industrial sector, open up new opportunities for Malaysian companies to conduct profitable business and investment cooperation.

The Malaysian Minister emphasized that the Government of her country is carefully studying the successful cooperation of Uzbekistan with the International Labour Organization (ILO). Thanks to the efforts of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the comprehensive transformations, wise and balanced foreign and domestic policy, Uzbekistan successfully overcomes international difficulties in cotton industry.

It was emphasized that the experience of Uzbekistan in this direction is very effective and useful for Malaysia in promoting a positive image of palm oil abroad.

In this context, the Malaysian side informed that the possibility of identifying Uzbekistan as a hub for deep processing and packaging of palm oil for further export of finished products to Central Asian and other CIS countries is currently being studied. It was noted that this proposal was developed following the results of the visit of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council leadership to Uzbekistan from March 31 to April 4, 2019.