On October 5 this year, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan S. Umurzakov headed a meeting considering issues of bilateral cooperation with the United States, the European Union and the PRC via video-conferencing.

Top officials of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the heads of the diplomatic missions of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the PRC, the USA and the EU countries attended the meeting.

The issue of the development of the cooperation with the United States touched upon improvement of the bilateral legal framework, including through the signing of intergovernmental agreements on mutual protection of investments and the avoidance of double taxation, as well as mechanisms of attraction of leading US companies to the investment projects in Uzbekistan. The attendees considered the preconditions to organize the next business forum of the American-Uzbek Chamber of Commerce, the visit of representatives of the US business community to Uzbekistan in the near future.

As a part of interaction with the European Union, in particular, they considered the current state of the ongoing work to obtain the status of a GSP + beneficiary country by Uzbekistan, and developed practical mechanisms to accelerate this process.

The attendees also noted the need to accelerate the completion of negotiations on the Agreement on Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the European Union (AEPC), as well as the need to take measures to appropriately amend national Law.

Particular attention was paid to further steps to expand trade and economic cooperation with China with a view to the establishment of systematic work to attract Chinese investors to the projects in Uzbekistan, including through the organization of business forums in the PRC, including presentations of specific investment proposals in priority sectors.

They noted ample opportunities for new commercial agreements under the planned participation of a delegation of Uzbek exporters in the Third International Exhibition of Imported Goods, which will be held on November 5-10 this year in Shanghai.

After the meeting, the executive officers and representatives of the diplomatic missions of the Republic of Uzbekistan received certain instructions to ensure the unconditional and timely implementation of the tasks.