On September 28 this year, in Tashkent, the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in cooperation with the Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the World Trade Organization, held a regional conference "World of Trade: Trends and Dynamics".

The main purpose of the event organized within the framework of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) program "Trade in Central Asia" is to discuss the latest trends in the development of international trade, the role of the WTO in maintaining the stability of world trade and economic reforms.

The conference was attended by Jamshid Khodjaev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Aziz Urunov, Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on WTO Issues, Charlotte Adriaen, Head of the EU Delegation to Uzbekistan, Zhang Xiangchen, Deputy Director General of the WTO, Peter van den Bossche, Professor of the World Trade Institute at the University of Bern, heads of representative offices of international organizations in Uzbekistan, representatives of the private sector, scientific circles, as well as ministries and departments of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and others.

Addressing the participants with a welcoming speech, Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjayev stressed the importance of developing international trade relations to ensure the sustainability of economies, noted the main trends and challenges of world trade, highlighting the importance of accelerating the Uzbekistan's accession process to the WTO.

During the regional conference, panel sessions were held on post-pandemic trends in the world trade, issues of newly joining WTO member states and hindrances in implementing WTO rules in the field of food safety. Experts were able to discuss the removal of barriers to trade, the development of "green" and digital trade, the main advantages and key issues of WTO membership, the introduction of innovations, sanitary
and phytosanitary standards in agricultural production and other issues.

At the end of the conference, the importance of holding such events was noted in order to raise awareness of governments, business and society about current development trends and existing problems in international trade, coordinate joint measures to implement economic reforms and strengthen the role of the Central Asian region as a unique transit hub connecting Asia and Europe.