BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 28. The UK has a strong, growing relationship and cooperates closely with Uzbekistan in a number of areas: from trade, security, private sector development, and economic governance to education, and climate change, UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Tim Torlot told Trend.
According to the ambassador, in order to support governance and private sector development of Uzbekistan, the UK government created a special flagship program.
"The UK is committed to supporting economic governance and private sector development through our flagship program, "Effective Governance for Economic Development" (EGED), which aims to support the Uzbek Government and citizens in effective, evidence-based design and delivery of economic policies," the ambassador said.
Torlot emphasized that the abovementioned program is focused on: labor code and labor relations policy design and implementation support, governance and restructuring of state-owned enterprises, support to public procurement reform, support to green transition, measuring informality, urban development, and housing policy reform, as well as the development of e-commerce.
As is known, Uzbekistan for many years has been trying to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), and this process is lasting for about thirty years. Speaking about the country’s accession to the WTO, the ambassador outlined UK’s support in this process.
"The UK provides support to Uzbekistan on the accession to the WTO and launched a new joint program with USAID, to support textile and agricultural businesses in Uzbekistan in exporting their products to UK markets," he added.