Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to Uzbekistan Zhang Xiao said that the upcoming visit of the Uzbek leader to China will become historic event in development of relations of two states.

He said that during the visit, President Islam Karimov will hold talks with the Chinese President Hu Jintao, chairperson of National People's Congress Wu Bangguo, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and other officials.

They will exchange opinion on bilateral issues, business cooperation, international and regional issues of mutual interest, the diplomat said.

It is planned that Uzbekistan and China will sign bilateral documents on cooperation within the visit.

Zhang Xiao said: “I am sure that the visit will give new impulse to cooperation between our states in various areas and left them to new level of development.”

He said that Uzbekistan is only the CIS country, which occupies significant place in trade with China. Ii 2005-2010, the volume of bilateral trade rose from US$680 million to US$2.47 billion, or 3.6 times. Exports of Uzbekistan to China increased from US$450 million to US$1.299 billion in 2010, or 2.88 times.

Envoy said that currently Uzbekistan exports cotton-fiber, non-organic chemical products, services, mineral fuel, oil and oil products to China, while imports equipment, vehicles, metals, plastic, pharmaceutical products, etc.

Currently, China is the second largest trade partner of Uzbekistan, the first largest investor, the first largest cotton-fiber importer, the first largest equipment supplier to communication and soil improvement, he added.

Chinese diplomat stated that as of the end of 2010, China implemented 35 direct projects in Uzbekistan and total volume of investments almost reached US$4 billion, including non-resource sectors. He added that there were only 83 enterprises with Chinese investments in Uzbekistan and as of the end of 2010 their number exceeded 200.