Uzbek, Swedish business circles meet in Tashkent
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
A business forum was held in Tashkent with the participation of the business circles of Uzbekistan and Sweden.
It was organized by the Uzbek Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade and the Swedish Trading and Investment Council “Business Sweden”.
A delegation led by Ingrid Tersman, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden to Uzbekistan, arrived in Uzbekistan to discuss promising areas for the development of trade, economic and investment cooperation.
The business mission included Andreas Giallurakis, Director of the Swedish Trade and Investment Council of Bussiness Sweden for Eurasia and specialists of the organization, heads of the companies ‘‘ABB Safegate’’, ‘‘Scania, ‘‘Ericsson, ‘‘Alfa Lacal Potok, ‘‘Sandvik: Mountain mining and mining technologies”, “Epirus” and ‘‘EF Education First’’.
Ingrid Tersman noted in her speech that parties held an event for the first time in February 2017, when Uzbekistan was just entering the path of reforms.
The Ambassador said that during this period, she has been in Uzbekistan several times and observed gradual positive changes, which were reported to representatives of Swedish companies.
“I would like to note that Uzbekistan’s intention to develop relations with neighboring countries is good. This will undoubtedly lead to sustainable economic growth, improve the standard of living of citizens. Sweden is a small country and is far enough away from Uzbekistan, but we have a number of companies that have already wanted to enter foreign markets for several years. I am convinced that working together with Swedish companies will also contribute to the implementation of sustainable development commitments”, said Tersman.
Swedish companies represent such sectors as energy, oil and gas, mining and processing industries, construction materials and food products, high-tech solutions in aviation and air transportation, information and communication technologies.
During the business forum, representatives of authorized departments of Uzbekistan made presentations, where potential areas for cooperation were demonstrated.
Today, Sweden is an industrialized country with significant natural resources, an efficiently formed internal and external transport infrastructure, and a highly skilled population.
A special place in the economy of Sweden is occupied by the manufacturing industry, which accounts for the majority of total exports and imports of goods. The leading industries include diversified automotive industry, pulp and paper, woodworking, metallurgy, mining, production of telecommunications equipment.
One of the main tasks to strengthen the Uzbek-Swedish relations is to expand the legal framework between countries: the signing of a number of bilateral agreements aimed at increasing the dynamics of trade, transfer of knowledge and developments in the field of science and technology and creating a favorable economic environment.
Promising industries include such areas as the production of pharmaceuticals, light and food industries, education and technology.
Today, on the territory of Uzbekistan, 10 enterprises with the participation of Swedish capital operate, of which - one enterprise with 100 percent foreign capital.
Following the event, the company ‘‘EF Education First’’ and the Uzbek Ministry of Public Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
According to the signed memorandum, the parties will share experience in the field of human capital development and cooperate in the field of training foreign language teachers, including English and assessing their knowledge.
Diplomatic relations between Uzbekistan and Sweden were established on April 8, 1992.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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