Baku, Azerbaijan, August 13
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Uzbekistan and Asian Bank for Infrastructure Investments (AIIB) plan to implement joint regional projects in Afghanistan, Trend reports citing Uzbek media.
AIIB delegation led by the Bank President Jin Liqun is on the visit in Uzbekistan to negotiate with the government promising areas of cooperation.
“Given our involvement in economic and trade relations with Afghanistan, we agreed to do regional projects together,” Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov said at a business briefing as part of the visit of the AIIB delegation.
The head of the ministry noted that implementation of projects in the field of transport infrastructure and energy is under discussion.
In turn, Jin Liqun said that AIIB is looking forward to starting partnership outside of Central Asia.
He added that the participation of Uzbekistan is of key importance for the bank’s activities in the region. "Uzbekistan is becoming the best partner in the region for us," Jin Liqun noted.
At the meeting between Umurzakov and Jin Liqun, both promising new projects and those already being implemented were discussed.
Earlier Uzbek government and AIIB signed an agreement on the implementation of a set of projects in the field of water supply, sanitation and road construction in Bukhara region of Uzbekistan in the amount of over $600 million.
In 2017, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed agreements on the construction of the Mazari-Sharif-Shibergan-Maiman-Herat railway and the Surkhan-Puli-Khumri transmission line.
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is an international financial institution established in 2014, whose main objectives are to promote the development and economic integration of the Asia-Pacific region, stimulate financial cooperation and finance infrastructure projects. Uzbekistan has been a member of the AIIB since its creation.
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