Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 28 May, at the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov met with the chairman of Mangold Consulting and co-chairman of the EU-Uzbekistan Business Council Klaus Mangold.

The agenda covered a wide range of issues of political, trade, economic and investment cooperation between Uzbekistan and Germany.

The urgency of strengthening bilateral ties between the government, business and expert circles of Uzbekistan and Germany was noted, in connection with which the German side announced its readiness to assist in organizing the visit of the Uzbek delegation to Berlin for conducting targeted negotiations with German ministries, departments and large companies.

The interest of German companies in investing in such areas as energy, light, electrical and pharmaceutical industries, automotive and building materials production was emphasized. An agreement was reached on further cooperation to attract new German companies to the implementation of projects in Uzbekistan.

In this context, K. Mangold noted the importance of high-quality implementation of the privatization program in Uzbekistan in order to further increase the country’s investment attractiveness for foreign investors. He expressed his readiness, if necessary, to assist in attracting specialized German companies and financial institutions to the privatization of state assets, shares of large enterprises and commercial banks.

Prospects for applying the experience of leading German companies in the implementation of digitalization projects in agriculture, healthcare and education were considered - further steps were identified to establish direct interaction with relevant ministries and departments of Uzbekistan for joint work in this direction.

Special attention was paid to deepening cooperation in the field of hydrogen energy. According to the German side, the introduction of new technologies based on hydrogen in Uzbekistan will free up additional volumes of natural gas for the generation of electricity, the development of gas chemistry, the production of chemicals and fertilizers, as well as its use in metallurgy.

As one of the priority areas of interaction, the parties identified further joint work to increase the Uzbek-German trade turnover in the post-like period. It was noted that this is largely facilitated by Uzbekistan’s obtaining the status of a beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences of the European Union (GSP+), in connection with which the parties agreed to conduct familiarization events aimed at building the correct approach to using the GSP+ system by local exporters and promoting products of Uzbek manufacturers in the markets of European countries.

The issues of interaction to stimulate the socio-economic development of the Aral Sea region were also discussed - the German side expressed its readiness to assist in raising awareness of the world community about the situation in the Aral Sea region in order to attract gratuitous funds and grants to the implementation of the concept: “The Aral Sea is a zone of environmental innovations and technologies”.

As a result of the negotiations, an agreement was reached to intensify interaction to accelerate the implementation of joint projects and initiatives, as well as to develop new directions for a multifaceted Uzbek-German partnership.