The two officials are leading their countries’ delegations at a Slovak-Uzbek business forum in Bratislava aimed at intensifying the opportunities for cooperation in several economic sectors including investments by Slovak entrepreneurs in Central Asia, TASR reported.

Representatives of the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) and the Uzbek foreign investment agency Uzinfoinvest have signed a memorandum of understanding and co-operation.

Ganiev promised that Uzbekistan will create all the necessary conditions that will allow Slovak investors to carry out their activities successfully. He sees prospects in setting up joint enterprises, with one of the main assets being Uzbekistan’s membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which allows access to a market of over 300 million people.

According to Ganiev, a global economic crisis is exactly the right time to launch joint ventures in various economic sectors.