Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Uzbekistan will be the focus of a major investment forum to be held on 27 November in London, the global capital of emerging markets investment.

Presented by London-based Adam Smith Conferences and Eurasian Investor, the UzInvest Forum has been developed in consultation with Uzbekistan’s Ministry for Investments and Foreign Trade, but is Uzbekistan’s first major international investment forum launched as a private sector initiative. Adam Smith Conferences, a market leading business media company, has over 25 years experience in organizing investment summits in CIS countries.

The UzInvest Forum will welcome delegates from across Europe for an intensive day of plenary sessions and working meetings focused on opportunities for European trade and investment in Central Asia’s most populous country. 

A senior government delegation will be participating in the forum and includes First Deputy Minister of Investments Laziz Kudratov, Deputy Minister of Finance Odilbek Isakov, Director of the Capital Markets Development Agency Atabek Nazirov, and Director of the State Assets Management Agency Sunnatilla Bekenov.

As well as offering European executives investors an opportunity to learn more about recent reforms in the areas of legal protections, privatization, and capital markets modernization with direct updates from the responsible officials, the UzInvest Forum will also highlight the important role of Uzbekistan’s private sector in driving economic development and opening the door to foreign investors.

Zaffar Khashimov, CEO of Korzinka.uz, the father of modern food retail in Uzbekistan, will give a keynote speech on the increasingly dynamic private sector in Uzbekistan and the growing interest in entrepreneurship.

Other entrepreneurs who will be addressing the audience in London include Anvar Irchaev, the CEO of promising transportation start-up MyTaxi.

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder of Eurasian Investor, explained that the timing of the UzInvest Forum marks the completion of the first phase of Uzbekistan’s economic reforms—the critical next phase is set to begin.

“During my research trips to Uzbekistan over this past year, I was able to meet a wide range of business leaders and learn more about how the Uzbek economy has changed over the last three years,” he said.

“The opportunity for European multinational companies and financial investors is clear—Uzbekistan will offer early-movers robust growth in revenues and returns for years to come. But to move into the second phase of economic reform, a wider pool of foreign companies and investors need to be introduced to the Uzbek market. We want to help launch this second phase,” Batmanghelidj explained.

Foreign investors have been impressed with the pace of economic reforms in Uzbekistan and the robust economic growth being delivered by the government of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The popularity of the February eurobond offering was a major vote of confidence.

Kiyan Zandiyeh, CEO of London-based investment company Sturgeon Capital, one of the sponsors of the UzInvest Forum, sees growing interest among investors in Uzbekistan.

“Investors see strong economic growth coming from a low base, an ambitious economic reform program and attractive macro dynamics. There has been a surge of interest in the past year, which we believe will only increase, as awareness grows about the unique opportunity set the country presents,” he said.

But many companies and investment firms with experience in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South East Asia, still have yet to fully appreciate the scale of the opportunity in Uzbekistan, which extends not just to its market of 33 million people, but to Central Asia more broadly—a region with a population of over 100 million.

Describing the forum’s effort to bring policymakers and business leaders from Uzbekistan and Europe into closer conversation, Ayça Apak, Director of Research and New Business Development at Adam Smith Conferences described the forum as “the Uzbek equivalent of the World Economic Forum in Davos”.

The UzInvest Forum will take place at Glaziers Hall, a historic venue near London Bridge, just a short distance from the city’s financial center. It is the first of a series of investment promotion activities planned by Adam Smith Conferences and Eurasian Investor aimed to support economic development in Uzbekistan.