TASHKENT (TCA) — During their meeting in Beijing on April 25, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and China President Xi Jinping expressed shared interest in bringing the volume of China-Uzbekistan trade up to US $10 billion in the coming years, the press service of the Uzbek president reported.
They also discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation in attracting investments, innovations and technologies into the economy of Uzbekistan, devising new joint cooperation projects in various spheres, and developing the transit and transport potential of the region.
The Uzbek president arrived in Beijing to attend the Belt and Road Forum on April 26.
Mirziyoyev stressed that Uzbekistan fully supports China’s Belt and Road initiative and is ready to make a practical input to its full-scale implementation.
The Chinese president expressed confidence that the participation and initiatives of Tashkent in the framework of the project will contribute to the comprehensive enhancement of China’s mutually advantageous interaction with Uzbekistan and Central Asia as a whole.
The Chinese leader underscored that Beijing highly appreciates the level of cooperation with Uzbekistan and is firmly committed to the enhancement of comprehensive strategic partnership relations between the two nations. China also welcomes the reforms and the regional policy of Uzbekistan.
China is one of Uzbekistan’s major trade, economic and investment partners. The bilateral trade turnover has been growing gradually; it exceeded 6.4 billion US dollars last year, and has increased by 50 percent in the first quarter of this year.
The volume of Chinese investments and loans in Uzbekistan’s economy has exceeded 8 billion US dollars. In accordance with agreements reached during Mirziyoyev’s visit to China in May 2017, projects worth more than $4.5 billion are being implemented.
At the end of the meeting, President Mirziyoyev invited Xi Jinping to pay a state visit to Uzbekistan.
