BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 9
By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:
Prime Minister and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardor Umurzakov held a meeting with Chairman of South Korea Eximbank Bang Moon-kyu, on July 8, 2020, Trend reports citing Ministry of investments and foreign trade of Uzbekistan.
The meeting was held as part of the Uzbek government delegation's visit to Seoul (South Korea) and was devoted to discussing the dynamics of joint projects, as well as prospects for expanding the project portfolio of the bank in Uzbekistan.
The substantive and constructive dialogue allowed covering a wide range of issues and proposals. The parties agreed to intensify joint work to accelerate the signing of loan agreements on a number of projects already approved by the Bank in 2019.
The South Korean side has also expressed interest in further expanding the financial and technical cooperation with Uzbekistan. For this purpose, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan and Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) at South Korea's Eximbank launched a joint elaboration of an agreement on cooperation in economic development in the period from 2021 through 2023, envisaging an increase in the program of preferential financing from $500 million to $1 billion.
In addition, the sides discussed the creation of a joint fund to stimulate the development of small and medium business in Uzbekistan, the concept of which the sides agreed to work out in the near future.
The bank's management will also consider the prospects of deepening cooperation with commercial banks of Uzbekistan through the allocation of additional credit lines in order to increase the volume of financing projects with the participation of entrepreneurs from both countries.
As a result of the meeting, the priority tasks within the discussed areas of cooperation development have been outlined and the format of further systemic work has been agreed.
To date, 17 joint projects worth $2.1 billion have been implemented in Uzbekistan at the expense of Eximbank of South Korea.
---
Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini