BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 20
By Ilkin Seyfaddini – Trend:
The first Tashkent International Investment Forum, which was scheduled to be held March 5-6, has been postponed until autumn at risk of spreading of the coronavirus, Trend reports citing Uzbek media.
For this reason, only about 500-600 delegates out of 1,500 expected participants have expressed the intention to attend the forum. As reported, the forum was rescheduled at the request of the participants.
Recently, for a similar reason, Russian Investment Forum in Sochi, which was scheduled for February 12-14, was also postponed.
However, the forum in Tashkent is bound to take place as it is very important for Uzbekistan, the report said.
The initiative to hold the investment forum came from Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev; he made the proposal during his message to the parliament in January.
According to Uzbek Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, more than 1,500 leaders of foreign and national companies, investors, exporters and international media were to be involved in the forum.
The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. Since then over 2,128 people have died and over 75,727 people have been confirmed as infected.
Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. The symptoms include cough, headache, fatigue, fever, aching and difficulty breathing. It is primarily spread through airborne contact or contact with contaminated objects.
Chinese health authorities say that the majority of the people who have died were either elderly or had underlying health problems.
Aside from Mainland China, the cases of coronavirus spreading have also been confirmed in Japan, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, the US, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Macau, France, Canada, the UAE, India, Italy, Russia, Philippines, the UK, Nepal, Cambodia, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Sweden and Sri Lanka.
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