Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 14 July, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to the Republic of Uzbekistan Santosh Jha, during which topical issues of investment, trade, economic, financial, technical, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries were discussed.

During the meeting, positive trends in investment partnership were noted - following the results of 2019, the growth of direct Indian investments in the economy of Uzbekistan made up 17% due to a significant increase in the number of Indian enterprises operating in our country. Some progress was also made in the field of trade - at the end of 2019, the dynamics of trade turnover showed an increase of 24.1%. At the same time, the meeting participants agreed on the need to combine efforts to fully utilize the existing potential of the economies of the two countries. An agreement was reached to intensify negotiations on the draft Agreement on preferential trade and the Agreement on the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between Uzbekistan and India.

The parties agreed to continue the joint development of new investment and export agreements in the areas of information technology, pharmaceuticals, textile manufacturing, agriculture, the production of building materials, as well as to hold the first meeting of the Uzbek-Indian Committee for the coordination and promotion of practical implementation of bilateral projects in the near future, which promises to be an important step in the sustainable development of bilateral relations.

They discussed the possibility of expanding the volume of financial and technical cooperation between the two countries by increasing the credit line of Eximbank of India to finance socially significant projects in Uzbekistan.

The success in developing partnerships in the humanitarian sphere was emphasized: in October 2019, a branch of Sharda University was opened in Andijan region, where specialists in the field of electronic and communication engineering, business administration and commerce are trained, and in February of this year, a branch in Tashkent Amity University, which will train specialists in the field of information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence and management. In this context, the prospects of establishing cooperation with the Pharmaceutical Scientific and Research University of Delhi and the opening of a branch of the university at the Tashkent Pharmaceutical Institute were discussed.

Upon completion of the negotiations, Santosh Jha on behalf of the Government of Uzbekistan expressed appreciation for the invaluable contribution to the development of Uzbek-Indian relations, as well as the wishes of successful work in the new post of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to the Kingdom of Belgium along with accreditation as the Ambassador to the EU.