Today.Az » World news » Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Uzbekistan
02 November 2019 [13:51] - Today.Az
By Trend
The President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping will visit
Uzbekistan next year, as was announced following the result of
negotiations between the delegations of the governments of the two
countries, which took place in Tashkent, Trend reports citing Uzbek media outlets.
The negotiations took place within the framework of the 18th meeting
of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization.
As part of the meeting, the Uzbek side invited Chinese partners to
participate in the International Investment Forum, which will be held on
March 4-6, 2020 in Tashkent. A proposal was put forward to hold the I
Uzbek-Chinese Interregional Forum as part of Xi Jinping’s planned visit
to Uzbekistan in 2020.
Furthermore, the signing of documents on cooperation in the fields of
trade, economics, investment, banks and finance, transport and
communications, agricultural exports and technical cooperation took
place there well.
The representative of the two countries outlined common tasks to
expand bilateral trade and bring its volume by the end of 2020 to $10
billion.
Currently, the volume of investments in the economy of Uzbekistan by
China has exceeded $9 billion. These investments are directed to the
development of the oil, gas, chemical, energy, telecommunications
sectors and the implementation of infrastructure-oriented investment
projects of strategic importance.
According to Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Finance’s "Draft Budget for
Citizens", in 2020 the debt of Uzbekistan to China will reach $ 3.006
billion.
From Jan. 2015 to Jan. 2019, government debt to China gradually
increased from over $1 billion to over $1.9 billion, adding $200-$300
million a year. By early 2020, growth over 12 months will be over $1
billion, or 53 percent.
China is the largest trade and economic partner of Uzbekistan.
According to the results of 9 months of this year, mutual trade turnover
increased by 33 percent and amounted to $5.9 billion. In 2018, trade
between the two countries amounted to $6.4 billion. In Aug. 2019, China
and Uzbekistan created a joint investment fund with a statutory fund of
$1 billion .
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