Uzbek leader's China visit scheduled in May
TASHKENT. March 24 (Interfax) - Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will make a state visit to China in May, Uzbekistan's Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade Elyor Ganiev said on Friday.
"We are engaged in the most thorough preparations for the forthcoming visit by the president of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to China in May of this year," Ganiev said at the fifth meeting of the trade and economic cooperation subcommittee of the Uzbek-Chinese intergovernmental cooperation committee in Tashkent.
Uzbekistan "highly values the relations of comprehensive strategic partnership with the Chinese People's Republic. Our countries are strongly bound by the relations involving many years of friendship and mutually beneficial, productive cooperation, primarily in the economic sphere, based on the principles of mutual respect and trust," the minister said.
The visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Uzbekistan in June 2016, which resulted in the signing of important agreements to implement joint projects worth over $5 billion, was "a real breakthrough in the development of the bilateral relations," he said.
For his part, the head of the Chinese delegation and Vice Minister of Commerce Fang Aiqing said that Beijing is the biggest investor in Uzbekistan's economy. "Total volume currently stands at $7.6 billion, according to our data, this is the highest indicator in Uzbekistan, it will increase," he said.
At the meeting, the subcommittee analyzed implementation of top-level agreements and decided on practical measures and steps to intensify bilateral cooperation.
The next meeting of the intergovernmental committee will be held in Tashkent in April.
According to the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade, trade between Uzbekistan and China stood at $4.2 billion in 2016. Currently, Uzbekistan has 704 enterprises with Chinese capital holdings, including 88 with 100% foreign ownership, and representative offices of 73 Chinese companies.
