Turkish International Agency for Cooperation and Development (TIKA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan supported a visit of International Experts to Tashkent on 12-14 September 2007 for sharing experience of in export promotion.

The delegation headed by Mr. Ibrahim Senel, Deputy General Director at the General Directorate of Exports, Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade accompanied by Mr. Asuman Soylu, Implementation and Coordination Director at the Export Promotion Center of Turkey, Mr. Hasan Onal, Foreign Trade Expert at the General Directorate of Exports, Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade and Mr. Sahin Oktay, Deputy General Secretary at the Turkish Assembly of Exporters.

Export promotion is one of the strategic goals of the current economic reforms in Uzbekistan. Establishing favorable conditions for national exporters including simplification of customs and other procedures related to export, and protection and promotion of the interests of exporters will significantly increase export potential of the country, create new work places and improve the living standards of the population. In order to achieve the abovementioned, specialized institutions, which will protect rights and interests of exporters and work to increase their export scope and their sound representation at the external markets, should be created

In this regard, UNDP’s projects "Business Forum of Uzbekistan" and "Support to External Economic Policy" within their activities on Uzbekistan’s export promotion organized the mission of the international consultants. The experts shared their experience on export promotion in Turkey.

During the mission of international consultants, it was organized a number of meetings, brainstorming and seminars with representatives Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade, experts of the projects and exporters for identifying the main issues of export promotion and development of the recommendations on further export promotion in Uzbekistan.

Within the framework of the visit, UNDP Country Office in Uzbekistan hosted a seminar "Activities of export support institutions and their services to exporting community: international experience" on 14 September. Turkish experts made presentations and participated in discussions devoted to this topic.