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The first meeting of the two countries’ territorial committee took place on May 27 in Tashkent, chaired by Uzbek and Russian presidents Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Vladimir Putin, the Uzbek presidency reported. News ServiceThe leaders of about 30 Russian regions and representatives of about 300 leading industrial enterprises and companies attended the event.
The Council was established six years ago on the basis of the Joint Forum on Interregional Cooperation initiated by the leaders of the two countries. Its status has now been elevated to a territorial committee chaired by the president.
The Uzbek President stressed at the opening ceremony of the forum that cooperation between regions shows “high efficiency” and “contributes to expanding the long-term partnership between Uzbekistan and Russia.”
He said that since the beginning of this year, relations between the two countries at all levels, including at the local level, have become active. Last week, delegations from various regions of Uzbekistan visited partner regions of Russia.
Currently, the two countries are implementing more than 200 regional cooperation projects with a total value of $4 billion. The President said that a set of new contracts with a total value of more than $5 billion were prepared within the framework of the Council meeting.
Mirziyoyev reminded that during the talks with Putin, new goals were set – to increase trade volume to US$30 billion in the next few years and to attract US$10 billion in investment next year.
The President of Uzbekistan identified several priority areas for interregional cooperation.
1. First, Increase mutual tradeIn the past seven years, the trade volume between Uzbekistan and Russia has increased by 2.5 times. The President of Uzbekistan said that the mutual supply structure has improved in terms of quality, first of all, high value-added products.
The main partners include Moscow and St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Astrakhan, Ivanovo, Chelyabinsk Region, Krasnoyarsk, Perm Region, Bashkortostan, etc.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev said Uzbekistan will open a formal trade representative office in Russia to support trade and cooperation projects.
2. The second direction—— Expanding the scope of industrial cooperation.
More than 3,000 Russian companies are doing business in Uzbekistan. Projects involve energy, chemical and petrochemical, mechanical engineering, agriculture, logistics, textile and food industries. The “Shimgrad” industrial zone in Tashkent region, jointly built with Tatarstan partners, is being expanded, and a branch plant in Jizzakh region is under construction.
“Total investments in joint projects exceed $45 billion. Within the framework of today’s summit, agreements were reached on new cooperation projects worth $20 billion, a quarter of which will be funded by the regions,” said the President of Uzbekistan.
He supported plans to create new joint industrial zones to promote joint projects with leading companies in Russian regions.
3. The President is the third priority Expanding cooperation in the agricultural sector famous.
He stressed the importance of continuing efforts to expand the network of agricultural logistics centers in Uzbekistan’s regions to organize delivery of fruit and vegetable products directly to Russia.
He said that large agricultural enterprises and agricultural clusters in Uzbekistan are also interested in developing wholesale distribution centers in Russia and growing crops that will be shipped to Uzbekistan in the future. He added Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
4. President Development of support and financing instruments for regional projects Emphasized its importance.
According to him, a joint investment platform with an initial capital of US$500 million is about to be launched.
5. Expanding cultural and people-to-people exchanges Special attention will be paid to this in the future. Russia’s top universities have established 14 branches in Uzbekistan, including Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University in Tashkent, Moscow State University in Almalik, Kazan Federal University in Jizzakh, etc.
During the visit, the two sides reached an agreement on the establishment of branches of Moscow Bauman State Technical University and the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade in Russia, and adopted a three-year cultural cooperation plan.
6. President of Uzbekistan Expand tourism exchanges Its importance was emphasized. In recent years, the number of Russian tourists has increased fivefold. All major cities of Uzbekistan and Russia are connected by regular flights.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev suggested new joint programs to develop tourist destinations and tours to historical cities of Uzbekistan and Russia.
In recent years, Uzbekistan and Russia have achieved fruitful results in developing a large-scale partnership. At the same time, we should realize that the potential and possibilities of interregional cooperation have not been used even half.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that today 78 of the 89 subjects of the Russian Federation cooperate with Uzbek regions.
“Thanks to such direct contacts and proactive joint efforts of regions and authorities, regional management groups, business and industry, cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan has a unique content and the number of participants is growing,” he said.
He clarified that Russia wants to allocate $400 million of the $500 million to a previously announced joint investment fund for financing promising projects in Uzbekistan.
“The funds have been allocated and prepared. Now only technical details remain. This will be completed in the coming days. The funds flow to various sectors of the real sector of the republic’s economy,” he said.
According to the press service of the President of Uzbekistan, at the end of the meeting of the Regional Committee, a number of documents and agreements on interregional cooperation on developing cooperation in the spheres of trade, economy, science and technology, and humanitarian affairs were signed.
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