Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Turkey-Uzbekistan Round Table Meeting was held at TOBB Twin Towers hosted by TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu with the participation of Uzbek Prime Minister Rustam Azimov and his delegation.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they wanted to open new avenues for cooperation between Turkey and Uzbekistan, “We are at an ideal time to move the relations we have established forward and, especially recently, a strong political will to this end.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that the two fields they are focusing on in this process are increasing trade and investment between Uzbekistan and Turkey.

Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that the trade volume of the last 10 years between the two countries has increased by more than 3 times and reached 1.2 billion dollars. However, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that this figure is far below its potential; it is necessary to increase trade volume and bring companies together for more business cooperation.

Stating that they are closely following Uzbekistan's projects, Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that they wanted to invest more in this context.

Hisarcıklıoğlu reported that free-economic zones have been established in Uzbekistan and that Turkish companies were promised favorable environment for taxation, customs and other privileges and in these regions. “We would like to thank you for that; we have very important opportunities there.”

- “We want to produce intermediate goods for the main industries of Uzbekistan”

Indicating that industrial investments are an important area in this context, Hisarcıklıoğlu also stated that they want to produce intermediate goods for the main industries of Uzbekistan.

Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that the integration of Uzbek automotive industry with the investments of Turkey's strong automotive subsidiary in Uzbekistan will be a very important business alliance for cooperating in third countries.

“We have a lot of opportunities in the construction of new and modern textile and leather processing plants, shoe factories, pharmaceutical industry and the energy sector. We want to bring our companies to Uzbekistan for all of these. Agriculture is another important area. Uzbekistan presents opportunity for investments in 6 areas and projects aimed at fruit and vegetable packaging, reprocessing and export. We think this is the best time for the strong and experienced Turkish food sector to come to Uzbekistan. We have great opportunities in tourism and we want to contribute to this area as well.

- Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Rustam Azimov

Rustam Azimov, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, said in his speech, “We invite companies in Turkey to Uzbekistan; we have conducted serious research and have decided to make a business alliance in areas where Turkey is strong.”

He explained that Uzbekistan's economy has developed very steadily with many large international companies investing in various fields in the country.

Azimov expressed that there are important investment opportunities in the country such as gas and petrochemical industry, agriculture, tourism, medicine, transportation, textile, etc. and went on:

“At this point, our biggest problem is that we sell our resources as raw materials. Instead of selling cotton, our most important export items, raw material, if we turn it into yarn, cloth or ready-made garments, the price will increase even more. However, we only process 35% of cotton produced in our country. We have a lot of potential in this area. Turkey is strong in the field of textiles; it is possible to cooperate in this regard. We have very important resources, sectors such as petrochemical sector, valuable metals, agricultural products, textile and leathers. We invite companies in Turkey to Uzbekistan. We have conducted serious research and have decided to make a business alliance in areas where Turkey is strong.”