Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarciklioglu and Uzbek Prime Minister Jamshid Kuchkarov gave a message of determination to increase mutual cooperation, investment and trade.

The Turkey-Uzbekistan business luncheon was held with the attendance of Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Jamshid Kuchkarov and the delegation accompanying him with TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarciklioglu hosting the event in Ankara. Opportunities to develop mutual cooperation and trade was discussed at the workshop which took place at the TOBB Twin Towers. TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they are focusing on two points in his speech, “The first one is increasing mutual trade with Uzbekistan and the second is investments. We want to invest more in Uzbekistan,” he said. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the trade volume increased by 3 times over the past 10 years, totaling 1.2 billion dollars. “But we know that this is far below our potential. One of the important issues in trade is customs transitions. Especially the land customs gates are important in our region. In this regard, we have great experience as TOBB. We can build the world's fastest working and safest border gates in less than a year. Until today, we have built 10 customs gates of Turkey without costing a single penny to our government. The gates we built are pointed out by the United Nations as an example for the whole world. TOBB wants to transfer this experience to Uzbekistan.”

- We are interested in investments

Noting that they wanted to invest more in Uzbekistan, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they are closely monitoring Uzbekistan's projects, “We know that Uzbekistan is working to improve the investment climate even further,” the TOBB President said, “In Uzbekistan we want to forget the issues which faced of our investors in the past. In the new era, we want to focus on new areas of cooperation and investment.”

- Cooperation in tourism and construction

Pointing out that there are significant cooperation opportunities between the two countries in tourism, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that he had great experiences in this sector and that opportunities in tourism should be explained to Turkish investors. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that another important cooperation issue is the construction sector, “Our contractors have become a world brand. To this end, we want a larger share of projects in Uzbekistan.”

- Kuçkarov urges Turkish businessmen for build-operate-transfer projects

Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, Jamshid Kuchkarov, also stated that they are ready to cooperate in the fields of tourism, construction, contracting, construction materials, chemistry, machinery, agriculture and textiles. Jamshid Kuchkarov urged Turkish businessmen to participate in build-operate-transfer projects. Underlining that Turkey has great experience in this area, the visiting vice-prime minister said, “We are open to all the suggestions in this area.”

Jamshid Kuchkarov said that Uzbekistan is ready to use many means of financing, and noted that besides Türk Eximbank, China, European countries and Russian banks are also ready to provide financing. Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Jamshid Kuchkarov added that they are accelerating their efforts to become a member of the World Trade Organization.