President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangdong Province Huang Kunming participated in the joint investment forum held in Shenzhen as part of the business program of the state visit to the People’s Republic of China.

During his visit in May last year, the Uzbek leader met with leading representatives of the business, financial, and investment sectors of the People’s Republic of China. Important agreements reached during that meeting further expanded the bilateral trade-economic and investment partnership between our countries.

The current investment forum, which brought together heads of departments and regions of the two countries and more than 600 representatives of China's major corporations, was a continuation of the fruitful dialogue. Among the participants of the forum were the management of China's National Oil and Gas Corporation, National Chemical Engineering Company, Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, China Energy, Gezhouba Group, China CAMC Engineering, Huawei Technologies, SANY Renewable Energy, BYD Auto Industry, Xinjiang Hualing Group, ZTE, TBEA, Universal Energy, China Development Bank, State Development Bank, Eximbank of China and many others.

Opening the forum, the Head of our state warmly welcomed all participants and noted Shenzhen's unique symbolic significance as being China’s capital of innovation.

“Today, comprehensive and mutually beneficial relations between our countries are dynamically developing primarily due to economic cooperation," the President stressed.

The fruitful negotiations with President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, held the day before, were noted with deep satisfaction. Agreements on supporting the activities of business representatives from both countries and creating favorable conditions for them were considered as the significant results of the negotiations.

This will also be facilitated by the adopted historical document - the Joint Statement of the leaders of the two countries, which elevated Uzbek-Chinese relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

The President of Uzbekistan paid special attention to the fact that the trade-economic and investment cooperation between the two countries is growing rapidly and gaining a wide scope.

In particular, in recent years, the volume of mutual trade has doubled and reached a record 14 billion USD in 2023. The Head of state once again noted that this figure could be increased to 20 billion USD in the coming year through the expansion of mutual supplies of agricultural and industrial products and new intergovernmental agreements on the establishment of preferential trade in certain types of products.

China has invested over 14 billion USD in Uzbekistan overall, and the number of businesses with Chinese investment has tripled.

The President praised the recent signing of important investment agreements at the Interregional Forum and Exhibition of Industrial Products in Urumqi and expressed readiness to host the next forum in Uzbekistan, aiming to give a systematic character to the business platform. The Leader of Uzbekistan also welcomed plans to create a permanent Council of Regions of the two countries.

Structural reforms are being carried out in New Uzbekistan to liberalize the economy and introduce market mechanisms.

A Fund to support projects for producing high-tech industrial products has been created. This month, the industrial mortgage is being launched, when land and production areas are given to investors as a ready-made business.

Attention for accelerating the privatization of large banks, industrial and infrastructure facilities, and the introduction of public-private partnership mechanisms were highlighted.

Noting the importance of mobilizing joint efforts to promote new projects and initiatives, the President of Uzbekistan outlined further priorities and promising areas of interaction.

These include expanding partnerships with Chinese companies, introducing a simplified procedure for attracting funds from Chinese financial institutions to infrastructure development projects as well as developing industrial cooperation in priority sectors of the economy, including deep processing of strategic raw materials.

In addition, the attraction of advanced Chinese technologies in sustainable agriculture, the introduction of scientific approaches to land rehabilitation, and the cultivation of salt-tolerant plants are highlighted.

Further promotion of strategic partnerships in green energy and the participation of Chinese companies in the privatization program are indicated as essential directions.

In this regard, the agreements reached with Chinese partners to expand the investment portfolio of projects and programs for infrastructure development and industrial cooperation were noted with satisfaction.

It was also stressed that the decisions taken during the current visit to Uzbekistan to expand financing of projects by China's leading banks, open a representative office of the Export-Import Bank, and create a new Investment Platform with the Silk Road Fund will give a powerful impetus to the successful activity of Chinese partners in Uzbekistan.

“Each Chinese partner will be assigned a responsible investment manager. We firmly believe they will provide Chinese companies with new opportunities to implement projects successfully”, the President said.

Huang Kunming, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangdong Province, also delivered a welcome speech to the participants of the business forum. He expressed full support for the course of irreversible reforms pursued by the President of Uzbekistan and, noting the great opportunities opening up in Uzbekistan called on Chinese businesses to participate even more actively in implementing mutually beneficial projects.

Following the business forum, a substantial package of documents was signed on implementing projects in energy, oil and gas, mining, electrical engineering, light industry, mechanical engineering, infrastructure development, agriculture, education, transport, and logistics.

An action plan for projects is developed and responsible managers are assigned to each project.

In the end, the Uzbek leader proposed to organize the Guangdong investment forum annually, suggesting the next meeting be held in Samarkand next year.