Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Uzbekistan and Japan will continue exchanging economic information, conducting business seminars for attracting foreign direct investment and expanding their bilateral trade relations.

The relevant Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Uzbekistan's Uzinfoinvest Information Support and Foreign Investments Promotion Agency and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).

The MoU said JETRO plans to hold a seminar in Tashkent on Japanese technologies in the energy field in autumn.

The document was signed during the visit of the Japanese business circle representatives to Uzbekistan. The delegation included representatives of Japanese companies operating in the fields of trade, engineering, aviation, electrical engineering, ICT, energy and petrochemical industries.

Japan is one of Uzbekistan's key economic partners. The trade turnover between the two countries exceeded $215 million in 2013. The funds provided by Japan to Uzbekistan amounts to $2.32 billion. Some 11 joint Uzbek-Japanese companies have been established and some 14 offices of Japanese companies are accredited in Uzbekistan.

Thanks to Japan's financial and technical assistance, a number of socially significant and infrastructure projects in the health, education, energy, transport, telecommunications and other sectors are being implemented in Uzbekistan.

Also, the representative offices of large Japanese corporations such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Itochu and Marubeni are operating in Uzbekistan.

The first overseas office of the JETRO was opened in Central Asia in Tashkent in October, 2000. The activity of the representative office is aimed at promoting the development of export industries, revitalization of Japanese enterprises in the field of investment, establishment of contacts between the two countries in the production and technology sphere, as well as collecting and storing information about the economy and industry of the Central Asian region.