BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 14
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
Uzbekistan’s economy is on a promising growth path, although COVID-19 pandemic has turned it around momentarily, the Director of the Unit for Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland Sirpa Oksanen told Trend.
Regarding Uzbekistan’s joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) with the EU, the director of the unit said that the negotiations are ongoing.
Oksanen also said that there are many promising and important sectors for trade cooperation between Uzbekistan and Finland, for example education, water, waste management and recycling, upgrading IT and telecoms infrastructure, and introduction of energy efficient and clean technologies.
“There are already a number of commercial cooperation initiatives ongoing regarding educations,” she added.
Earlier it was reported that Uzbekistan and Finland are considering expanding bilateral cooperation in economic and cultural spheres.
During the fourth meeting of the Uzbek-Finnish Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation in June 2020 the current state and prospects of development of bilateral relations in the sphere of investment, trade-economic, financial-technical and cultural-humanitarian interaction were analyzed and priority tasks for the near future were defined.
The investment area was generally viewed at the meeting as having significant potential in such areas as information and communications technology, pharmaceuticals, fish farming, agriculture and innovation.
In addition, the positive trend in financial and technical cooperation was highlighted - the Government of Finland was thanked for contributing one million euros to the UN Trust Fund for Human Security for the Aral Sea Region.
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