OREANDA-NEWS. On May 28, 2008 Uzbekistan-UAE intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation held its first session in Tashkent, reported the Official website www.investuzbekistan.uz.

Representatives of government bodies and companies working in the trade, fuel, energy, finance, agriculture, customs, car building, pharmaceutics, food, light industry, transport communications, tourism, culture, environment and other spheres participated in the event.

First vice prime minister of Uzbekistan, commission co-chairman Rustam Azimov said Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates were expanding relations in all spheres of cooperation. The official visit of the President Islam Karimov to the UAE in March 2008 gave a new impulse to the relations. It was then that the agreement on creating the Uzbek-UAE economic cooperation commission was reached.

Minister of foreign trade of UAE, commission co-chairman Lubna bint Haled al-Kasemi also noted that the cooperation between the two states was developing steadily in political, economic, scientific and social spheres.

“Favorable investment climate in Uzbekistan is attracting the businessmen from the UAE,” she said. “We are interested in expanding mutually beneficial contacts in oil and gas, energy, agriculture, textile and food industry, banking, finance and tourism.”

Bilateral commodity turnover between Uzbekistan and UAE made up USD 93,1 million in 2007. About 70 joint ventures have been set up in Uzbekistan with UAE capital, and more than 20 companies from this state run their representative offices in Uzbekistan.