OREANDA-NEWS. April 07, 2014. Representatives of Uzbekistan and Singapore entrepreneurship circles have convened at Tashkent’s International Business Center for a bilateral business forum.

The medium was attended by heads of ministries and other government agencies, companies and corporations specializing in such areas as economy, trade and industry, investments, insurance, banking and finance, machine building, energy sector, high technologies, exports and imports, construction materials production, electrical engineering, chemistry, metalworking, leather industry, communications, information technologies and telecommunications, education and business consulting. 

Chairman of Uzbekistan’s Trade and Industry Chamber Alisher Shaikhov stressed in particular that the cooperation between Uzbekistan and Singapore has been advancing steadily building on the agreements reached during highest-level meetings.

The relations between our two nations have been dynamic in the political, trade-economic and investment, cultural and humanitarian areas, based on the normative foundation made up by a range of agreements, including those in mutual stimulation and protection of investments, avoidance of double taxation, air communications and in the humanitarian sphere.

The volume of bilateral trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Singapore reached 47.6 million US dollars in 2013. Thus, 33 joint ventures have been founded in our country with the participation of Singaporean investments and are operating in energy sector, light and textile industry, electrical engineering.

It was said at the event that the ultimately encouraging business environment created in Uzbekistan under the leadership of our President, including the system of privileges and preferences directed at safeguarding the rights and interests of investors, has been appealing to the interest of overseas businesspeople in cooperation with our country. The presidential decree on additional measures to stimulate the attraction of direct foreign investments has served as an important factor in elevating these efforts to a qualitatively new level.

“Our delegation includes the heads of companies operating across various fields,” Persie Chan, managing director of Grandluxe Pte Ltd., says. “It is indicative of the high interest of Singapore entrepreneurs in the consolidation of mutually advantageous interaction with Uzbekistan. The business forum will facilitate the further development of trade and economic ties between our two countries, the search for and spring into action of new dimensions of cooperation and exchange of expertise in business.”

The guests were detailed on the measures being taken in our country to promote entrepreneurship, on the privileges and preferences created at the Navoi Free Industrial Zone as well as economic zones Angren and Jizzakh.

“We have come to be convinced in the conditions conductive for doing business in Uzbekistan and the optimal investment environment,” said Jafair Gopy Kannan, managing director of JA International Group of Companies. “Our company that specializes in business consulting has been working to improve business and raise the effectiveness in the given area. We are interested in the establishment and development of partnership with Uzbek companies operating in diverse spheres.”

The occasion also served as a platform to discuss the prospects of the further promotion of economic and investment cooperation between Uzbekistan and Singapore, the enhancement of bonds in the trade-investment, energy and chemical industries, production of construction materials, mechanical and electrical engineering, leather industry, elaboration and implementation of mutually beneficial investment projects.