Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

A German business delegation representing the engineering and machine tools industry that is on a visit to Uzbekistan March 11-16 is studying the possibility to expand cooperation with the Central Asian state in the engineering sector.

During the visit, organized by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology of Germany and the state-run Information Support and Foreign Investments Promotion Agency Uzinfoinvest, the representatives of German business circles aim to study the investment potential of the country as well as to establish stable and trust-based relations with Uzbek partners.

During a business forum held as part of the visit by the German delegation, the sides emphasized the potential for cooperation between Germany and Uzbekistan.

According to German charge d'affaires to Uzbekistan Torsten Geller, the fact that most members of the German delegation represent the engineering sector indicates that Uzbekistan is an interesting country for German investment. There are great opportunities in Uzbekistan for bilateral cooperation in the electrical engineering sector.

Navoi Free Industrial Economic Zone and Angren Special Industrial Zone, the infrastructures of which are ready for launching a wide spectrum of production, attract special interest of German entrepreneurs.

The members of the German delegation will also visit the automobile plant "GM Uzbekistan" in Asaka city and the truck producing plant "MAN" in Samarqand during their visit.

Germany is one of the main trade partners of Uzbekistan in Europe. The investment projects worth over 1 billion euros have been implemented in Uzbekistan jointly with leading German companies.

An agreement on financial and technical cooperation between Uzbekistan and Germany was signed in September. The main directions of cooperation between the two countries for 2012-2013 were also outlined then.

The Uzbek-German trade turnover amounted to $400 million in 2012.

116 companies operating in Uzbekistan have been established with the assistance of investors from Germany. Representatives of about 50 German firms and companies were accredited in the country.