Today, on May 2, ahead of the visit of the President Sh.M. Mirziyoyev to Germany, a joint business forum was held in Berlin, which was attended by over 250 chiefs of major companies, holdings and industrial enterprises, banks, ministries, departments and industry associations of the two countries.

Speaking with a welcoming speech, Deputy PM of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khodjaev underscored the active development of bilateral ties between Uzbekistan and Germany in recent years, which became possible thanks to the trust and political will of the heads of the two countries.

There was an increase in the volume of the two-way trade, which doubled over the past 5 years. At the end of 2022, the trade figures increased by another 50% and, for the first time, surpassed 1 billion euros.

There is also consistent upward trend in investment and industrial cooperation. The number of German-invested enterprises set up in Uzbekistan has grown almost 3 times over several years and surpassed 200. The total amount of disbursed German investments has grown by 11 times since 2017 and today stands at more than 4 billion euros. Many German companies such as MAN, CLAAS, Knauf, GP Papenburg, Viessmann, Deutsche Kabel, LEMKEN are already actively and very successfully doing business in Uzbekistan, launching new production facilities.

The attention of business leaders in Germany was drawn to the conditions created in Uzbekistan for the comfortable work of foreign investors, as well as the strengths of the Uzbek economy. Including, high human resources potential, strategic geographic location, free trade regimes with the CIS countries, GSP+ beneficiary status, active work on joining the World Trade Organization, rich raw material resources and direct support of the Government and the government of the country in the implementation of joint projects and initiatives.

The most promising areas for building long-term cooperation are energy, chemical, food and textile industries, metallurgy, automotive, agriculture, production of building materials, electrical engineering, as well as pharmaceuticals and healthcare.

German business leaders reportedly highly valued the economic reforms in Uzbekistan, which resulted in, among other things, comfortable working conditions in the country for foreign investors. A firm commitment was expressed to increase cooperation and develop new joint projects.

The forum program continued with “B2B” meeting and presentations of specific cases and projects in the context of various sectors of the economy of Uzbekistan.