President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held talks with the visiting Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim. This is the first visit of a Malaysian leader to Uzbekistan in the last 16 years.
According to the presidential press service, the parties considered upgrading the Uzbek-Malaysian relations to a qualitatively new level, strengthening political dialogue, implementing humanitarian and educational programs, and intensifying tourism and cultural exchange.
In order to expand trade and economic ties, the parties pointed to the need to transform the existing joint Trade Committee into an Intergovernmental Commission with its maiden meeting to be held this year. An agreement was also reached on setting up of a Uzbek-Malaysian industrial zone in Uzbekistan.
The two-way trade more than doubled in 2023. According to the Malaysian authorities, it topped 94.03 million US dollars, including exports to Uzbekistan worth of 93.6 million and imports worth of 414.5 thousand dollars.
The parties considered the ties in agriculture, including the introduction of water-saving technologies, cultivation and processing of fruits and vegetables, as well as certification according to halal standards, as well as interaction in the ITs, transport connectivity and poverty reduction.
It is planned to develop cooperation in training and advanced training of personnel in the fields of energy, Islamic finance, ecology, artificial intelligence, tourism, as well as strengthening scientific and practical ties in healthcare.
They discussed steps to implement joint pilgrimage tourism programs, including promoting the Umrah Plus project, as well as to step up the dialogue between the youth of the two countries.
The two leaders also exchanged views on issues of regional cooperation in Central and Southeast Asia and Afghan issues.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to consider the creation of a dialogue platform for ministerial meeting in the Central Asia+ASEAN format.
The parties expressed confidence that the Uzbek-Malaysian business forum, scheduled for the second day of the visit in Samarkand, will serve to expand investment partnerships, cooperation of leading companies in the fields of innovation, industry, green energy, petrochemicals, electrical engineering and electronics, pharmaceuticals and other industries.
Following the talks, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Anwar Ibrahim signed a Joint Statement on deepening the bilateral ties.
