The head of the state said the visit of the IMF Managing Director to Uzbekistan was a good opportunity to define priority and prospective directions of cooperation.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov said: “You are visiting Uzbekistan for the first time today. Therefore, we are much satisfied with this. We consider your visit and the visit of people accompanying you to our region, Central Asian region, including Uzbekistan to be quite timely and topical. First of all, because this gives you the chance to learn closely the situation in our region, and primarily, the situation, I would say, in a risk zone, where developing countries are situated. If today the global crisis has a direct connection with and impact on the economies of almost all countries, this is a dangerous risk, first of all, for those states which we call them developing countries.”

Uzbekistan became the member of the IMF in 1992. The financial institution opened its representative office in Tashkent in 1993.

In accordance with article IV of the IMF Charter the institution’s mission visits Uzbekistan every year to hold talks on cooperation in development of banking and financial system, improvement of the monetary and credit policy and strengthening macroeconomic stability.

The December 2008 mission stated that, despite global economic crisis, Uzbekistan had retained economic stability, ensured GDP growth and positive surplus in foreign trade.

The IMF experts underline that Uzbekistan has all signs to reach positive economic results this year, UzA reported.

At the meeting with Islam Karimov, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the IMF would continue cooperating with Uzbekistan in issues of softening the influence of the global economic crisis and further development of the economy.

The sides also considered other issues of relations between Uzbekistan and the IMF.