SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (TCA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 18 in Samarkand paid his respects at the grave of former Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, who died in September after more than 25 years of running the country.
Erdogan also met with acting Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyaev to discuss bilateral relations.
Erdogan said Turkey considers Uzbekistan a priority partner in Central Asia, the press service of the Uzbek president said.
Erdogan and Mirziyaev pointed out that the current level of cooperation between Uzbekistan and Turkey does not correspond the existing potential.
Turkey is among the leading trading partners of Uzbekistan, with bilateral trade amounting to $1.2 billion in 2015. However, the two leaders noted, this figure does not reflect the existing potential and bilateral trade could be doubled or tripled in the nearest years.
Today there are around 500 Turkish companies working in Uzbekistan and Turkish investments in the Uzbek economy have exceeded $1 billion.
The sides discussed construction of facilities for growing and deep processing of agricultural produce in Uzbekistan, for storage, packing and export of food products, as well as creation of joint ventures in the textile and leather-processing industries, and new projects in pharmaceuticals, the press service of the Uzbek president reported.
The sides also discussed further development of Uzbekistan’s tourism infrastructure by means of attracting leading Turkish tourist companies for construction of modern tourist facilities in the Samarkand, Bukhara, Khorezm, and Tashkent provinces.
