Tashkent is hosting the second Consultative Meeting of the Central Asia leaders, where the Uzbek leader made opening remarks the presidential press service said.

"The purpose of the meeting is to promote deepening trade, economic and investment ties. It is important to make use of the advantages of the region, which has a huge market, significant natural and human resources. It is necessary to jointly identify opportunities and promote cooperation in various sectors with an aim to form a chain added value, boost regional trade, stimulate job creation”.

"I would like to emphasize that our rapprochement and cooperation in the region is the imperative of the time and is an irreversible process. It is based on the strong political will, deep historical roots and is not against other countries’ interests.”

“Uzbekistan is ready from today for active cooperation in agricultural machinery, automotive, electrical, textile sector.”

“We propose to organize for this purpose the Investment Forum of Central Asian countries in Tashkent, to hold annual meetings of the chiefs of the Chambers of Commerce”.

“The next important area is strengthening transport interconnectivity and unlocking the transit potential of the region. The transport system of Central Asia has to, first of all, ensure well-coordinated communications within the region, as well as effectively serve the increasing transit flows via building modern infrastructure”.

“It is necessary to promptly set up a regional Council for Transport Communications, to coordinate the Program and Agreement on the joint development of the transport system in Central Asia.”

“Another area is to step up cooperation in the energy sector. We would like to reiterate our readiness to consider the possibility of implementing joint projects to create a modern energy infrastructure in the region, with particular focus on the renewable energy”.

“Among the most promising areas of cooperation is tappin the region’s huge tourism potential. We need to establish a single, recognizable tourism brand in Central Asia with attractive regional tourism products. To this end, we propose to regularly hold the "Traveling in Central Asia" international conference

“Our countries have to develop coordinated approaches to solving problems of water use based on common long-term interests.”

“We need to coordinate our efforts to promote and strengthen peace, national harmony and economic recovery of Afghanistan”.