As part of his state visit to China, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev participated in the joint investment forum held in Shenzhen together with the Party Secretary of Guangdong, Huang Kunming.
Opening the forum, the president warmly welcomed all the participants and noted that Shenzhen is considered the innovation capital of China and that it gives a special symbolic meaning to the event.
The President of Uzbekistan paid special attention to the fact that the trade-economic and investment cooperation between the two countries is growing rapidly and gaining a wide scope. In the past years, the volume of mutual trade doubled, and in 2023 it reached a record value of $14 billion.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev once again noted that there is an opportunity to increase this figure to $20 billion in the coming years, including by expanding the mutual supply of agricultural and industrial products, by concluding a new intergovernmental agreement on the establishment of preferential trade in certain types of products.
China's total investment in Uzbekistan has exceeded $14 billion. The number of enterprises with Chinese investment has tripled. Mirziyoyev highly appreciated the signing of important investment agreements at the recent interregional forum and exhibition of industrial products in Urumqi.
The Uzbek side expressed its readiness to give a systematic tone to this business platform and hold the next forum in Uzbekistan. The president also welcomed plans to establish a permanent regional council of the two countries.
Noting the importance of mobilizing joint efforts to promote new projects and initiatives, Mirziyoyev pointed out the priority areas of future cooperation. This includes introducing a simplified procedure for attracting funds from Chinese financial institutions to infrastructure development projects and strengthening industrial cooperation in priority sectors of the economy.
Further promotion of strategic partnerships in "green" energy and participation of Chinese companies in the privatization program were also noted as important directions.
In this regard, it was noted that agreements were reached with Chinese partners to expand the portfolio of investment projects, infrastructure and industrial cooperation development programs.
It was also stressed during the visit that the decisions taken by leading Chinese banks to expand project financing, open an Export-Import Bank representative office, and create a new Investment platform together with the Silk Road Fund will give a strong impetus to the successful activities of Chinese partners in Uzbekistan.
Also, each Chinese partner will be assigned an investment manager who accompanies him during project implementation from start to finish and provides help where and when necessary.
“We firmly believe that it will create new opportunities for the successful implementation of projects by Chinese companies,” said the president.
At the end of the business forum, a solid package of documents was signed on projects in the fields of energy, oil and gas, mining, electrical engineering, light industry, machine building, infrastructure development, agriculture, education, transport and logistics.
Following the event, the President of Uzbekistan put forward the initiative to organize the Guangdong investment forum every year and suggested that its next meeting be held in Samarkand in 2025.
