On May 17, 2019, the first Uzbek-US-Canadian business forum was held in the city of Navoi. The event, organized by the Embassy of Uzbekistan in the United States and Canada, jointly with the Navoi city administration, was attended by a delegation of the State of Mississippi (USA) headed by Governor Phil Bryant, members of the American-Uzbek Chamber of Commerce, businessmen from Texas, Florida, Nebraska, representatives of the Eximbank of the USA , USAID, the US diplomatic mission in Tashkent, as well as Canada’s trade mission led by the Charge d'Affaires ad interim of this country in Uzbekistan Anik Gule.
The forum was opened by the Governor of Mississippi Phil Bryant, who delivered a speech on the economic potential of this state and promising areas of cooperation with Uzbekistan. The Governor gave a high assessment to the processes of radical transformation implemented in all spheres of life and society in our country. In his opinion, today's large-scale reforms guarantee the sustainable development of the republic and an increase in the well-being of the population for years to come.
Speaking about the promising areas of bilateral cooperation, the governor singled the spheres of agriculture out, in particular cotton-growing, logistics, textile industry and education.
Leading the delegation of Canadian business circles of the country's FAP in Uzbekistan, Anik Gule, speaking at the opening of the business forum, noted that the event was attended by the largest group of Canadian businessmen in all the years of Uzbek-Canadian relations – over 40 companies. They represent such areas as oil and gas, mining industry, agriculture, genetics in the field of animal husbandry, education, industry and healthcare. As the diplomat noted in her speech, the Canadians were deeply impressed by the high potential and wide opportunities of the intermodal logistics center “Navoi”, which will play a key role in the breakthrough in the Uzbek-Canadian trade relations.
Within the framework of the event, speeches by officials of the Government of Uzbekistan and leading foreign investors who implement projects in the Navoi region were also delivered.
In the course of an organized cooperation exchange, direct bilateral negotiations were held between representatives of the business circles of Uzbekistan and potential partners from the US and Canada. On the second half of the day, American and Canadian businessmen organized tours of the infrastructure, tourism and social facilities of the Navoi region to explore the possibility of investing in their development.
Following the business forum, 10 agreements were signed, five of them are in the trade-investment sphere totaling $150 million, and the rest are in the area of expanding cooperation in the fields of education and health, as well as development of sister city relations. In particular, the regional administration of Navoi concluded an agreement with the American company “Calatrava Grace” on the implementation of a project to build a monoblock plant and affordable housing with an investment of $100 million. In addition, a cooperation has been established with the Canadian company “Advanced Bio-Oil Technologies” to create a crop growing cluster for the production of biofuels attracting foreign investment in the amount of up to $24 million.
One of the most important documents was the Agreement on the establishment of sister relations between the cities of Zarafshon and Clinton. Thus, Zarafshan became the third city in Uzbekistan, which has sister city relations with the US cities. Previously, such relations were established between Tashkent and Seattle, as well as Bukhara and Santa Fe.
