Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 23 December, as part of the visit of a delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Republic of Uzbekistan, an Uzbek-Saudi business forum was held at the Hilton Tashkent City hotel, organized by the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Arabia.

It was attended by the Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khodjaev, the Minister of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Khalid al-Falih, heads of ministries, departments and over 100 leading companies of both countries.

At the opening ceremony of the Forum, the heads of delegations stressed that the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Saudi Arabia in August this year served as a powerful impetus for the comprehensive deepening of relations between Uzbekistan and the Saudi Arabia, demonstrating positive development dynamics in recent years.

“Reducing the state’s share in the economy and privatization are our main objectives. In recent years, 1,200 state-owned enterprises have been privatized in Uzbekistan. Next year we intend to privatize about a thousand more companies and facilities. The privatization of state property will make it possible to eliminate the monopoly in more than 25 types of activities by 2026. We can create joint ventures both in Uzbekistan and in Saudi Arabia, aimed at the production of high value-added products with further export to regional and European markets, as well as to the countries of the Greater Arab Free Trade Zone with a total population of more than 1.4 billion potential consumers,” Khodjaev said.

Thus, in particular, the volume of mutual trade between the two countries in January-November of this year increased by 9 times compared to the same period of last year.

Positive growth dynamics is also observed in investment cooperation - over the past few years, the number of companies with Saudi capital in Uzbekistan has increased by 5 times. Together with Saudi companies, projects worth more than US$17 billion are being implemented in the fields of energy, petrochemistry, healthcare, infrastructure development, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.

A firm commitment was emphasized to continue reforms in Uzbekistan aimed at reducing the state’s share in the economy and privatizing state-owned enterprises, transforming banks, creating an efficient stock market, and implementing projects in priority sectors on the principles of public-private partnership.

Opening opportunities were announced for expanding the volume and geography of foreign trade, including through the effective use of free access to regional markets and EU markets based on GSP + preferences, diversification of trade routes by promoting large-scale regional transport projects and the country’s desire to join WTO.

“Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia have rich natural resources and huge industrial potential. We can create joint ventures in both Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia aimed at the production of high value-added products with further export to regional and European markets, as well as to the countries of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area with a total population of more than 1.4 billion potential consumers,” Jamshid Khodjaev noted in his speech.

In turn, the Saudi side highly appreciated the pace and effectiveness of the socio-economic reforms being carried out in Uzbekistan and the opportunities for a breakthrough expansion of bilateral investment and trade and economic cooperation. The Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia expressed his commitment to the implementation of practical measures to strengthen investment and trade ties between the two countries and called on Saudi entrepreneurs to conclude mutually beneficial contracts and agreements.

Promising areas for investment cooperation have been identified - oil and gas and petrochemical industries, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, food, textile, leather and footwear industries, sericulture, infrastructure construction and tourism. And the mutual interest of business circles in building ties and working together was revealed during the B2B and G2B negotiations, where entrepreneurs and investors were able to identify common interests and discuss new mutually beneficial initiatives with an exit to firm agreements in the near future.

As a result of the forum, a solid package of documents was signed in priority sectors, the implementation of which will significantly expand the scale of multifaceted cooperation between Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, create new jobs and bring interaction between the business circles of the two countries to a higher level.