President of Uzbekistan Meets World Bank Group President in New York

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — As part of his official visit to New York, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting with Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group.

At the start of the meeting, President Mirziyoyev congratulated Ajay Banga on the successful transformation of the Bank’s operations aimed at supporting economic growth in developing countries. In turn, the World Bank President highly praised the large-scale reforms being implemented in Uzbekistan under the “New Uzbekistan” initiative.

The discussion focused on further expanding strategic partnership with the World Bank Group. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the high level of cooperation over recent years, particularly in supporting and promoting priority socio-economic reform programs and projects.

Uzbekistan is one of the Bank’s largest partners in Europe and Central Asia. The joint project portfolio exceeds USD 14 billion, and a regional World Bank office has been opened in Tashkent. Special attention was given to the outcomes of the III International Forum “From Poverty to Prosperity,” recently held in Namangan.

President Mirziyoyev emphasized the need to focus the Partnership Program on ensuring sustainable economic growth and accelerating high-quality project implementation. Priority areas include poverty reduction, creation of jobs for women and youth, comprehensive regional development based on the “Model Mahalla” approach, development of rural infrastructure, expanded support for the private sector, expert assistance in privatization of state assets, implementation of the economic decarbonization strategy, and transformation of the financial sector.

The significance of the World Bank’s participation in advancing strategic infrastructure projects in Central Asia was also highlighted.