Uzbekistan is a confident course for development!

20.11.2020

On November 19, at the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Ukraine, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum Volodymyr Makukha met with Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Ukraine Alisher Kurmanov.

In the report released on October 7, 2020, the World Bank predicted that Uzbekistan would be one of two countries in Europe and Central Asia to see economic growth this year, despite the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, from which Uzbekistan suffers as well as the rest of the world. To mitigate the economic, social and medical consequences of the pandemic, the government is taking effective anti-crisis measures. Despite the current challenges, the authorities have reaffirmed their strong commitment to continuing reforms in key sectors of the economy to achieve higher growth rates and improve the citizens’ well-being. This is very important to ensure a more sustainable and comprehensive recovery after COVID-19.

The World Bank also emphasizes that Uzbekistan's prospects remain positive, since the market reforms continue to move the economy toward resource efficiency and private sector growth. The lifting of restrictions in the third quarter of 2020, stable agricultural production and the partial resumption of remittances of the citizens working outside their country will lead to increased economic activity in the second half of 2020 compared to the first one.


As the Ambassador noted during the meeting,

"Uzbekistan carries out active and effective efforts in foreign policy, consolidating the role of one of the leaders among Asian countries." 

Uzbekistan's success results from a reform policy that is pursued by its Government headed by the President of Uzbekistan, Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who pays special attention to the development of a competitive environment and openly declares his negative attitude towards monopolies.

The positive experience of Uzbekistan can become an additional foundation for the effective development of cooperation with Ukraine. 

During the meeting with the Ambassador, they discussed the communication opportunities offered by the international platform of the non-governmental area of the Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum. The partner platform of the forum, which was created as an additional mechanism to help develop international cooperation and establish partnerships at the level of enterprises, organizations and institutions, already has concrete results in establishing effective development-related communication.

The focus was made on the project on establishing an international corridor of effective cooperation, in which the international team of the Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum performs a communication function between partners from countries from the Baltic Sea to the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. It is a project to establish and develop international partnership and cooperation in various fields: from education, culture and sports to the implementation of joint business projects, the creation of joint ventures and the establishment of partnerships between settlements of different countries. In was emphasized on the positive partnership experience of the basic regions of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine (Klaipeda, Gdynia and Pomeranian Voivodeship, Kherson and Kherson Region), which are active participants in the project on establishing a corridor of effective cooperation initiated at the forum areas. They noticed about  the importance of its transport and logistics chain, where the main participants of the project are the seaports of Gdynia (Poland), Klaipeda (Lithuania), Kuryk (Kazakhstan), leading transport and logistics companies KAMINERA GROUP (Lithuania), TransFor Group (Georgia), Turkmen Milli Logistik and port Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan), Batumi International Container Terminal and others.

During the meeting, there was separately discussed a non-standard decision on organizing communication opportunities for all international participants in the project on establishing the corridor of effective cooperation, which are involved in providing the transport and logistics segment. Realizing certain difficulties and the significant "homework" that Ukraine still needs to do to ensure the active functioning of its infrastructure for moving international partners' cargo on its territory, with the participation of a British-Ukrainian company having about 30 years of experience in Ukrainian ports, the project participants established a coordinating company U-Port United. It is responsible for representing the interests of all international project partners (ports and transport and logistics companies) in Ukraine and organizing cooperation with all port operators and transport companies of Ukraine. The formation of the supervisory board of this enterprise has begun, which is expected to include representatives of all partners (ports and transport and logistics companies) from Poland, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and others. The existing achievements and experience of effective joint actions of partners from Kazakhstan (modern port of Kuryk) and Turkmenistan (one of the leaders in the transport and logistics industry Turkmen Milli Logistik and the port of Turkmenbashi) were identified as one of the reliable foundations for effective joining the project by representatives from Uzbekistan.

In his turn, the Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Ukraine, Mr. Alisher Kurmanov, emphasizing the authority and role of Uzbekistan as one of the leaders in Central Asia, noted about the practice of substantive analysis and informed decisions, thanks to which the Government and the President of Uzbekistan ensure confident economic development of the country.

In conclusion, the current plan was agreed on joint actions and first steps aimed at identifying possible most effective forms and formats of cooperation between enterprises, institutions and organizations of the partner countries and enterprises, institutions and organizations of Uzbekistan. At the same time, the possible priorities were defined both in the Baltics (with the participation of representatives from Poland and Lithuania) and in Central Asia, where Uzbekistan has the opportunity to rely on its experience and gained authority in the region.