TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan is welcome to import more cost-effective and environment-friendly equipment from China to assist its industrialization drive, while China will expand imports of competitive Uzbek products, China Premier Li Keqiang said on May 13 while meeting with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who arrived in Beijing for an official visit and to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on May 14-15, Xinhua reported.
Li Keqiang urged the two countries’ small and medium-sized enterprises to enhance cooperation for mutual benefits and win-win cooperation.
Mirziyoyev said Uzbekistan can learn from China’s development experiences, broaden bilateral cooperation in areas including transport infrastructure, energy and mineral resources, water conservancy, equipment, industrial capacity and industrial parks, in order to lift bilateral ties to a new level.
In a separate meeting, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, called on the Chinese and Uzbek legislatures to enhance exchanges to carry forward the Belt and Road Initiative and provide legal and institutional guarantees for closer people-to-people exchanges and a better environment for investment.
Mirziyoyev said Uzbekistan will continue to enhance inter-connectivity with China to ensure healthy development of relations.
Within the framework of Mirziyoyev’s visit to China, important agreements were reached in the political and economic spheres, the press service of the Uzbek president said.
Following their talks, Mirziyoyev and China President Xi Jinping signed a Joint Declaration between Uzbekistan and China. A number of important documents were also signed, such as intergovernmental agreements on technical cooperation, international road transport, the exchange of intergovernmental notes on the financing of projects to improve the quality of education in secondary schools, equipping the healthcare sector with modern medical equipment, and the Memorandum of Understanding in veterinary and quarantine inspections of plants, a Memorandum of Understanding to promote cooperation between small businesses and private entrepreneurship, and a plan of cooperation in the inter-agency exchange in the field of agriculture in 2018-2020.
