On April 25 this year, the International Industrial Exhibition "Innoprom. Central Asia" - the largest event in the region aimed at enhancing investment, industrial, trade and economic cooperation, as well as establishing new business contacts and developing industrial cooperation between enterprises of Central Asian countries - started. The organizers are the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan as well as the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

The key objective of the exhibition is to build a dialogue between regions and countries in order to find points of common interest to give new impetus to the growth of investment, industrial, trade and economic cooperation, as well as to increase the number of mutually beneficial projects.

This year, more than 5,000 participants, over 200 foreign companies and business delegations from CIS countries, France, Italy, the Netherlands, India, Ireland and Japan have registered to participate in the exhibition as well as official delegations, including from the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Belarus, the Kyrgyz Republic, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

The key event of the first day of the exhibition was the main plenary session, held under the slogan "Central Asia - space for a technological breakthrough", which was attended by the heads of delegations of the participating countries: Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan S.Umurzakov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation D.Manturov, Minister of Industry of the Republic of Belarus P.Parkhomchik, Minister of Economy and Commerce of the Kyrgyz Republic D.Amangeldiev, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia V.Kerobyan, Minister of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Tajikistan Sh.Kabir and other officials.

Speaking during the plenary session, the head of the Uzbek delegation S.Umurzakov outlined the successes achieved by Uzbekistan in implementing large-scale socio-economic reforms, improving the public administration system, building a transparent market economy and increasing the role of the private sector in it, improving the investment climate and eliminating trade barriers. He also announced priority areas for further development of the country's economic and investment potential, including the implementation of effective administrative reforms, reduction of the state's share in the economy, digitalization of industry, business support, infrastructure development, stimulation of production with high added value through deep processing of raw materials and the creation of complete commodity and raw material chains, human capital development and liberalization foreign trade.

"The Central Asian countries have great potential for building up trade and economic relations. Today's realities require us to take decisive steps to form a new model of economic cooperation in Central Asia. Our economic partnership can be much larger and developed on the basis of complementarity and effective cooperation. In Uzbekistan, we have been working on an ongoing basis with each of the neighboring countries in Central Asia and a number of other countries for several years in order to find "growth points" to combine the capabilities of our economies and achieve breakthroughs in industrial cooperation," S.Umurzakov noted in his speech.

In turn, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation D. Manturov stressed the international and purely economic nature of this year's exhibition. Innoprom carries the definition of how industry should be represented today in its global cooperative format, and Innoprom is international industrial cooperation. This is not a political, but a purely economic, purely practical platform on which new cooperative relations are being built, which create the basis for the development of the economies of our countries," he said. On the sidelines of the session, the participants exchanged views and identified points of mutual contacts in the context of further development of industrial cooperation and economic cooperation, voicing specific proposals and initiatives for further joint study.

The exhibition will continue its work on April 26 and 27. Within the framework of the business program, panel discussions and thematic sessions are scheduled to discuss issues of international cooperation in the field of introduction of new technologies, coordination and implementation of regional industrial policy, exchange of experience and proven practices of state support for stimulating industrial development, improving the urban environment, building cooperation mechanisms in the field of production, digitalization and automation, introduction of innovative financial products for implementation of joint projects, as well as deepening the economic partnership of the countries of the region.

Presentations of the investment and industrial potential of various sectors of Uzbekistan, educational sessions and other events covering the main issues of industrial production and cooperation with Central Asian countries, as well as a B2B contacts exchange will be organized on the sidelines of the international exhibition. Some events are aimed at building links between the administrations and industrial companies of the regions of Uzbekistan and the participating countries of the exhibition. The whole range of opportunities in this context will be reflected by expositions of innovative industrial developments and products of large manufacturers, a number of national, regional and corporate stands.