Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On the eve of the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Italy, an Uzbek-Italian business forum was held in the country’s capital city of Rome, designed to strengthen and develop close ties and new formats of cooperation and attract investment in agriculture, industry, energy and other sectors of the economy.

From Uzbekistan, the forum was attended by Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade L. Kudratov, Deputy Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade O. Khamraev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Uzbekistan to Italy O. Akbarov, Deputy Minister of Transport Zh. investments M. Mirzaev, director of the Agency for Innovative Development O. Tuychiev, adviser to the Minister of Agriculture A. Shukurov, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry D. Vakhabov and heads of the largest energy and industrial enterprises and banks of the republic.

From the Italian side, the event was attended by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy E. Chirielli, Ambassador of Italy to the Republic of Uzbekistan A. Pinn, President of the Italian Trade Agency M. Zoppas, Vice President of OICE (Association of Italian Engineering, Architectural and Techno-Economic consulting organizations) R. Carpaneto, director of government relations at IVECO A. Ciommi and many other representatives of business and industry in Italy.

The business forum was attended by representatives of about 200 companies, 30 of which supply agricultural machinery and agricultural technologies. As Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture A. Shukurov noted, active work is underway in Uzbekistan today to attract investment in agriculture.

Uzbekistan already has a positive experience of cooperation in this area - in 2020, the Italian company Fin.Opera launched a project to grow saffron in Uzbekistan in the amount of 44 million euros. In 2023, Fin.Opera and its Uzbek partners BMB Trade Group signed an investment agreement to invest another 80 million euros in this project. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture itself is implementing 7 major projects with international financial institutions totaling US$1.8 billion.

Within the framework of the forum, it is expected to sign major contracts and agreements in the field of agriculture, which will give the necessary impetus to the agricultural sector of Uzbekistan, contribute to the development of the latest technologies in the republic and will increase the productivity and environmental sustainability of the sector in the long term.