Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Expansion of business and direct investment cooperation will be one of the important items of agenda of negotiations between the Uzbek leadership and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is scheduled to make an official visit to Tashkent, Chinese Ambassador to Uzbekistan Zhang Xiao told journalists on September 2.

He denied reports of some media outlets that China wants to 'freeze' its investment in Uzbekistan.

According to Xiao, the scale of China's financing and crediting in Uzbekistan will be increased.

He went on to say that the Uzbek-Chinese economic and trade cooperation has been developing dynamically in the past 21 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries.

According to Xiao, the trade turnover between China and Uzbekistan has now increased more than 50 fold compared to the early years of diplomatic relations. Just in the first seven months of 2013 it grew by 60 percent to $2.54 billion, which is equal to the level of 2011.

He also stressed that the trade and economic relations of the two countries are exclusively equitable and mutually beneficial. Their fruitful development brings real benefits to both countries.

There is no subjective or objective reason to slow down or even 'freeze' China's investments in the Uzbek economy, he noted.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will make his first visit to Uzbekistan during the first 10 days of September.

Uzbekistan and China actively develop cooperation in oil, gas, petrochemical, chemical and mining industries, in the fields of transport and logistics, the manufacturing industry, telecommunication, production of electrical technology and modern construction materials, as well as in a number of other spheres of the economy.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $3.23 billion in 2012. The same dynamics of sustainable growth remain in 2013.

Around 411 enterprises with Chinese capital operate in Uzbekistan.