Uzbekistan Eyes Boosting Trade With Iran to $1 b
TEHRAN (Iran News) At the premise of Uzbekistan Embassy, Uzbek Ambassador Farridin Nasriev hosted a ceremony marking Uzbekistan Independence Day with the presence of some distinguished guests and media persons.
Addressing the event, Uzbek Ambassador Nasriev congratulated the Independence Day and said Uzbekistan with population over 37m is one of the top 40 populous countries in the world which began fundamental reforms with the orders of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. He added that these drastic reforms have been approved by the international community and the IMF. He reiterated that the GDP of the country in 2023 surpassed $100b for the first time in the history of the country and it has been forecasted it would grow by 5.7%.
The country in recent years and especially in 2023 and 2024 have witnessed major achievements as in 2013 Samarkand of Uzbekistan was chosen as World Tourism Capital by the UNESCO, and the historic city of Khiva was declared the Tourism Capital of the Islamic World and in 2025, Samarkand of Uzbekistan will host 43rd session of the UNESCO General Conference in 2025.
He also hailed the performance of Uzbek athletes in Paris Olympic Games as well as their performance in the Paris Paralympics which is underway.
Nasriev then touched upon cooperation between Iran and Uzbekistan which is growing fast. He said that in 2023 leaders of both countries had constructive meetings and many good agreements were signed between the two states, adding that some major events have been planned between the two countries for this year like the Iran-Uzbekistan Economic Commission Forum which will be held on September 19-20 in Tashkent and Khorazm and an Iranian trade delegation led by the Head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, is to attend the event.
Then some of major activities of Uzbekistan during the past six months under management of Nasriev were presented to the participants.
The ambassador also on the sidelines of the event said that the number of Iranian visitors to Uzbekistan this year has surpassed 10,000 and expressed hope the number would increase more.
He also reiterated that currently the trade volume between Iran and Uzbekistan is $500m and both countries have set target to increase it to $1b.
The ceremony continued by some musical performance of Iranian traditional band and showing some clips on Bukhara of Uzbekistan.
At the end of the ceremony, an especial cake prepared for the event was cut by Mr. Nasriev.
Independence Day is an official national holiday in Uzbekistan since 1991 when the country gained its independence from the collapsed Soviet Union and the day is on the first of September every year.
