Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 28 September, in Tashkent, the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in collaboration with the Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the World Trade Organization, held a regional conference “The World of Trade: Trends and Dynamics”.

The main goal of the event, organized within the framework of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Trade in Central Asia program, was to discuss the latest trends in the development of international trade, the role of the WTO in maintaining the sustainability of world trade and carrying out economic reforms.

The conference was attended by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khojaev, Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on WTO issues Aziz Urunov, Head of the EU Delegation in Uzbekistan Charlotte Adrian, Deputy Director General of the WTO Xiangchen Zhang, Professor of the World Trade Institute in Bern Peter Van Den Bosch, heads of representative offices of international organizations in Uzbekistan, representatives of the private sector, academia, as well as ministries and departments of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, etc.

Addressing the participants with a welcoming speech, Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khojaev emphasized the importance of developing international trade relations to ensure the sustainability of economies, noted the main trends and challenges of world trade, especially emphasizing the importance of accelerating the process of Uzbekistan’s accession to the WTO.

During the regional conference, panel sessions were held on post-pandemic trends in global trade, issues of countries newly joining the WTO and problems of implementing WTO rules in the field of food safety. At them, 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 increase 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.