Elyor Ganiev, who is currently visiting the Sultanate of Oman, was accompanied by a high-level delegation that reflected the multi-purpose nature of the visit of which higher education constituted a major part. Dr Rawya welcomed the guest, who expressed his gratitude for accommodating the meeting.

Mr. Ganiev said his current visit to the Sultanate would lay the ground for a state visit by the Uzbek President to the Sultanate.

Dr Rawya said she sensed that there was a great desire on Uzbekistan’s part to reinforce cooperation with Oman. Both parties emphasized the need to realise and actualise all aspects of cooperation between the two countries.

On the higher education front, Dr Rawya and her guest talked about such ideas as scholarships exchange scheme, language and academic exchange programmes (both Sultan Qaboos University and the Colleges of Applied Sciences have Uzbek students studying courses on Arabic language and Islamic culture, among other examples), mutual recognition of academic credentials, and establishing research cooperation between Omani and Uzbek institutes of higher education in computer sciences, agriculture, architecture as well as other fields.

All this, Dr Rawya added, encouraged the Omani side to prepare a memorandum of understanding with Uzbekistan, aspects of which were discussed during the meeting.