Laziz Kudratov, Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade, held talks with Yu Jun, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Uzbekistan, on 27 July this year. The sides discussed the implementation of agreements reached during the visit of the head of state to China in May this year, as well as opportunities to expand bilateral trade, economic, investment, financial and technical cooperation.

Prospects for the development of mutual trade, the volume of which in 2022 totalled $8.92 billion, and in the first half of 2023 - $5.6 billion, were discussed. The sides stressed the importance of intensifying cooperation to ensure further growth of indicators, including through expanding supplies of agricultural products.

The sides noted with satisfaction the dynamics of growth in the volume of Chinese investments in Uzbekistan's economy, which has increased 5 times in recent years and reached $2.2 billion in 2022. The number of enterprises with Chinese capital in our country has tripled. Specific measures were outlined to expand the scale of investment partnership and industrial cooperation.

In the course of the dialogue, the sides considered the current state of implementation of joint projects in the energy sector, chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, infrastructure and transport, as well as the possibility of increasing financial and technical assistance of the Chinese government for the implementation of socially important projects in Uzbekistan and other issues of mutual interest.

The meeting resulted in elaboration of a format for further interaction with a view to accelerate practical implementation of the agreements reached and elaboration of new promising initiatives.