Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 7 April 2021, the 4th meeting of the Uzbek-Emirates Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was held in the format of a video conference. The Commission is co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov and Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Abdullah bin Tuk al-Marri.

The meeting was also attended by the heads of relevant ministries, departments, industry associations, investment companies and chambers of commerce and industry of the two countries.

The agenda of the meeting covered a wide range of issues of bilateral investment, trade and economic, financial and technical, cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

During the event, it was noted that the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the United Arab Emirates in March 2019 became a powerful impetus for the transition to a fundamentally new, higher level of intercountry partnership. It was also emphasized that the implementation of the agreements reached is under the personal control of the Heads of the two states, which indicates the strategic nature of bilateral relations.

Measures to further expand investment cooperation were one of the key issues of the meeting. It was announced that over the past two years it has been possible to achieve significant results in investment cooperation and create “success stories” with the Emirati “Mubadala”, “Masdar”, the Abu Dhabi Development Fund and other reputable companies in the UAE. In this vein, the parties expressed their mutual willingness to make efforts to increase the number of joint investment projects aimed at creating joint ventures for high value-added products in the textile industry, fruit and vegetable processing, jewelry, and the production of building materials.

In particular, proposals were voiced to increase investment partnerships in agriculture, bearing in mind a wide range of high-margin projects from the production of fruits and vegetables in open fields and greenhouses to the development of infrastructure for storage, processing and irrigation.

Opportunities were also considered for attracting Emirati business to participate in the state privatization program launched in Uzbekistan, which offers foreign investors a wide range of industrial, real estate, tourism and other assets.

The meeting participants made presentations of promising areas of bilateral cooperation and specific investment proposals, based on the analysis of which their further development was assessed.

An agreement was reached to intensify the interaction of UAE investors with the relevant government agencies and the business community of Uzbekistan to study the potential and identify the most promising investment projects in various sectors.

In this context, the parties welcomed the creation of the Uzbek-Emirates Business Council, the task of which will be to establish close and fruitful cooperation between the business circles of the two countries and agreed to hold its first meeting in June this year.

The sides highly assessed the prospects for further increasing the volume of mutual trade - over the past two years, the trade turnover between the two countries has grown by one and a half times. It was noted that this year Uzbekistan for the first time took part in the world's largest food and beverage exhibition "Gulfood" with its national pavilion, which presented products of more than 23 Uzbek manufacturing companies, which aroused keen interest among exhibitors and visitors.

An agreement was reached that the parties will continue to work to increase trade turnover by establishing closer interaction between the responsible departments of the two countries, including chambers of commerce and industry, export agencies, as well as through the regular exchange of information on goods and services that have export potential in the markets of the two countries, their manufacturers and potential customers. The parties also agreed to create a working group to identify the existing barriers to the increase in bilateral trade and prepare proposals to overcome them, and hold the first talks between its participants in April this year.

In a separate order, the issues of enhancing cooperation in the transport and logistics sector were raised, in particular, by increasing regular cargo air traffic between the two countries, as well as attracting Emirati investments for the implementation of large projects for the development and modernization of transport infrastructure.

On the sidelines of the meeting, 21 bilateral documents were signed, including a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of preserving the environment and biodiversity between the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the United Arab Emirates, an Agreement on organizing the activities of the Uzbek-Emirates Business Council, a number of agreements on the implementation of projects in the field of agriculture and education, as well as export contracts for the supply of textiles, legumes, dried and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Following the results of the 4th meeting of the Uzbek-Emirates Intergovernmental Commission, a final protocol was signed.