On May 4 this year, a meeting of the co-chairs of the Uzbek-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation – Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó, took place in Tashkent.

During the meeting, the sides discussed topical issues on the agenda of bilateral cooperation in political, investment, trade and economic, financial and technical, transport and logistics, cultural and humanitarian and interregional areas, implementation of existing agreements and prospects for deepening partnership in priority areas.

The sides welcomed the consistent and systematic development of interaction at the interdepartmental level, as well as the effective work to strengthen direct ties between representatives of the business circles of the two countries. The growth of mutual supplies of textiles, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and chemical products was noted. Investment cooperation is also increasing: Hungarian companies and banks are successfully implementing projects in Uzbekistan and are looking for new directions to expand partnership.

During the dialogue, the course of cooperation in certain sectors was considered in detail. In particular, the close nature of cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector was noted – work is underway to create new joint ventures in Uzbekistan for the production of medicines as well as accelerated registration of manufactured products. An agreement was reached to organize a visit of a delegation of heads of leading Hungarian pharmaceutical companies to Uzbekistan to work out new areas of investment cooperation.

Further plans were set out to promote the projects under development in the fields of agriculture, food and chemical industry. The parties comprehensively discussed all the existing issues and worked out algorithms for further interaction to solve them.

Speaking about the opportunities for enhancing cooperation in the field of transport, the meeting participants discussed measures to accelerate the signing of an Intergovernmental Agreement on Air Communication between the transport departments of the two countries and reached an understanding on a number of important issues.

Special attention was paid to the development of cultural and humanitarian cooperation, including the expansion of ties in the field of education. An agreement was reached to intensify contacts in the field of science and innovations.

Following the meeting, the heads of delegations of the two countries exchanged additional proposals for further expansion of bilateral cooperation and agreed to develop a dialogue aimed at promoting joint projects and initiatives.