Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent on Friday (December 23) held the Uzbek-Saudi Business Forum chaired by the Ministries of Investments of the two countries.
In his address, the Central Asian Republic’s Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade Jamshid Khodjaev stressed that the state is focused on reducing its role in the economy.
‘1,200 state enterprises have been privatized in Uzbekistan in recent years. Next year we intend to privatize about a thousand more companies and facilities. Privatization of state property will allow the elimination of the monopoly in more than 25 activities by 2026. We can create joint ventures in both Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, directed to the production of products with high added value with further export to regional and European markets, as well as to the countries of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) with a total population of over 1.4bn potential consumers’, the Minister said.
In January-November this year, the volume of Uzbekistan-Saudi Arabia bilateral trade surged nine-fold compared to the same period last year. Within the past few years, the number of companies with Saudi capital in Uzbekistan has increased fivefold. Joint projects worth over $17bn are being implemented in the fields of energy, petrochemistry, health, infrastructure development, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture.
In his turn, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih expressed his commitment to strengthening investment and trade ties with Uzbekistan.
As part of the forum, a solid package of documents was inked in priority sectors to expand the scope of multifaceted cooperation between Uzbekistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), create new jobs, and bring the business community of the two countries to a higher level.
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