Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 23-25 May, the return state visit of the President of the Republic of Singapore Halimah Yacob to Uzbekistan took place.

It should be noted that the head of Singapore is visiting Uzbekistan for the first time since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our states.

Among the important areas of bilateral cooperation discussed by the presidents during the talks, the signed “Cooperation Agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Singapore National Association of Travel Agencies” is of particular interest.

Today, our states have significant tourism potential and have a mutual interest in enhancing the exchange of tourists.

So Singapore is an attractive tourist destination due to the diversity of cultures, impressive modern architecture and many natural beauties. In addition, this country occupies one of the leading positions in the world rankings in terms of travel safety.

In turn, Uzbekistan, having a rich historical and cultural heritage, unique architecture, picturesque natural landscapes, is of interest to tourists from all over the world. Another area of tourism that is represented in our country is ziyorat tourism. Uzbekistan, being the cradle of Islamic civilization, is replete with many holy places, ancient madrasahs, preserved works of world famous and recognized theologians and hadith scholars, can attract the Muslim population of Singapore as a place for pilgrimage.

The parties have already taken steps to strengthen ties in the tourism sector. Thus, in order to popularize Uzbekistan as a new tourist destination for Singaporean tourists, since February 2018, a visa-free regime has been unilaterally introduced to Uzbekistan for citizens of Singapore for a period of 30 days.

Also, in order to provide reliable and complete information about the tourist attractiveness of our country, in 2019. The Uzbek-Singapore Tourism Development Center was opened in Singapore.

These measures have contributed to an increase in the number of Singaporean tourists in recent years by more than 3 times.

In this regard, the signing of the above Agreement will give additional impetus to the development of cooperation in the tourism sector. Its practical implementation will open a window of new opportunities for tourism exchange, intensify business contacts between travel companies, as well as launch joint projects to train personnel, support new tourism destinations and popularize the tourism brands of Uzbekistan and Singapore.

It can be said with confidence that the measures taken by the leaders of the two states will create new opportunities for the growth of mutual tourist exchanges, increase in investment and strengthen cultural and humanitarian ties between the peoples of the two countries.

Timur Kurbanklichev,

Leading Researcher, ISMI

under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan