Mr. Jihad Azour, Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, visited Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on September 14–16. During his visit, Mr. Azour held meetings with the authorities and stakeholders to discuss the latest regional and global economic developments and the authorities’ recent economic reforms. At the conclusion of his visit, Mr. Azour made the following statement:
“It has been a great pleasure to visit Uzbekistan. I congratulated the authorities on their steps to reform the Uzbek economy and reiterated our commitment to partner with Uzbekistan on this journey. We also exchanged views on the economic situation in Uzbekistan, in particular, the ongoing broad-based economic reforms, spearheaded by the recent liberalization and unification of exchange rates.”
“While Uzbekistan’s economic reforms will likely face many challenges, these reforms will allow the country to transit to a more efficient and—ultimately—much more prosperous economic system. I also warmly welcomed the government efforts to promote regional co-operation and expansion of trade.”
