He said that it is great pleasure to congratulate farmers and all works of industry for fulfilling contractual obligations and delivering over 3.5 million tonnes of high quality raw cotton.

The Uzbek President said that Uzbekistan invested over 539.5 billion soums to land-reclamation works in last four years, which helped to achieve this result.

More than 90% of the harvest is cotton of the highest grade, the Uzbek leader said. He added that farmers of Andijan region, Karakalpakstan and Navoi region fulfilled their contractual obligations first in the country.

President said it is his duty to express gratitude to hundreds of farmers, which achieved unprecedented success with their hard work.

“According to preliminary calculations, gross income is expected to exceed 2.4 trillion soums, which is 25% more than last year,” Islam Karimov said.

Uzbek head said that this will undoubtedly create huge opportunities for further improvement of the villages and the whole country, construction of new schools, lyceums and colleges, modern medical establishments, children’s sports objects, social infrastructure and rural housing, or, in short, for the further growth of the prosperity of the country and its people.

Islam Karimov said that the demand for the Uzbek cotton on the world market is increasing. This can be proved by the fact that the recent International Uzbek Cotton and Textile Fair resulted in contracts for sale of 650,000 tonnes of Uzbek cotton fiber with large foreign companies.

Uzbek President recalled that Uzbekistan modernized over 200 textile enterprises and created new joint ventures with foreign partners to increase internal processing and export ready products with value added cost.

Islam Karimov stated that the country processed only 7% of cotton-fiber, produced in Uzbekistan, in 1990s and now it processes over 33%. He added that this shows great achievements of Uzbekistan in this direction.

President noted that Uzbekistan will continue work on increasing internal processing of cotton-fiber, which will create new jobs and increase income.