On December 24 this year, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan - Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade S. Umurzakov met with the newly appointed Ambassador of the Italian Republic to the Republic of Uzbekistan A. Pinna at the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade.

The conversation touched upon key considerations of bilateral partnership in the investment, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian areas.

The parties noted spare capacity in the investment cooperation and agreed here to activate business contacts in the oil and gas, energy and chemical industries, agriculture, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, as well as to interact in order to attract major Italian companies to implement projects in Uzbekistan.

The foreign side confirmed its willingness to continue assistance to Uzbekistan in obtaining the status of a beneficiary country of the General System of Preferences ('GSP +'), which will provide duty-free export of more than 6 thousand commodity items to the EU countries, as well as the signing of Agreement for Extended Partnership and Cooperation (AEPC) with the EU.

The Italian side also expressed its commitment to comprehensively support Uzbekistan in its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

They emphasized the interests of the parties in the development of the interregional partnership. The parties disclosed proposals and further measures to sign the Cooperation Agreement between Samarkand region of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Lombardy, Italian Republic.

The agenda provided the agreement of a number of planned bilateral events, including the seventh meeting of the Intergovernmental Uzbek-Italian Working Group (IWG) on trade, economic and industrial cooperation in Tashkent in the first half of 2021.

Th meeting resulted in agreement on regular discussion of the progress of mutual projects in trade, economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian areas.