What does a state need, whose primary goals are to improve the standard of living and ensure the country’s prosperity using all available opportunities? Undoubtedly, this path leads to peace, prosperity, and well-being of citizens, public administration that can serve as an example, and people that can unleash this country’s full potential.

Many countries significantly contribute to the development of humanity, have an instructive history, rich experience, and hardworking people. Germany is one of them. Revolutionary discoveries that have completely changed the way of life of humanity – from advances in the automotive industry to the invention of the airbag, from the X-ray machine to the drug “aspirin”, from the computer chip to the very popular mp3 audio format – all this was created in Germany.

Since ancient times, this country has paid particular attention to science, art, and culture. Germany, as it is known, is the birthplace of world-famous writers and poets Johann Goethe, Franz Kafka, Erich Maria Remarque, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Böll, famous composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Felix Mendelssohn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss.

The country’s economy is developing every year. According to experts, it is second only to the United States, China, and Japan. Germany ranks 9th out of 191 countries in the UN Human Development Index. A country whose economy was destroyed 70-75 years ago at the end of World War II has now achieved one of the highest gross domestic products in the world.

World scientists associate the scientific, theoretical, and practical foundations of a modern market economy with the name of authors of the “Miracle of the German Economy”, Ludwig Erhard and Franz Oppenheimer. Germany ranks 7th after China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, the Republic of Korea, and Kyrgyzstan in exports of products to Uzbekistan. It should be noted with particular satisfaction that relations between Uzbekistan and Germany have developed rapidly in recent years. This can be seen in the example of an increase in the supply of German goods to Uzbekistan by 2.2 times over the past six years. In other words, the exchange of goods and services between the two countries increased from $530 million to $1.2 billion. This figure is expected to double again in the coming years due to increased and diversified production.

In Germany, whose climate, water, and soil are different from ours, the beautiful gifts of nature of Uzbekistan are in great demand, fruits and vegetables, enriched by the generous sun, grown by the hands of our diligent farmers and skillful gardeners, especially dried fruits beloved by the Germans, textiles made from pure cotton and silk, ready-made clothing, as well as industrial products.

The development of any country largely depends on the investments attracted to its economy. In this sense, for such a rapidly developing country as Uzbekistan, this is the best way to establish good investment cooperation with rich and technologically advanced countries. 4 billion out of the 5.5 billion dollars that Germany has invested in Uzbekistan have been invested in the last one or two years. Today, over a hundred joint ventures with full or partial German capital are operating in Uzbekistan.

The famous CLASS concern, the Lemken agricultural machinery manufacturing enterprise, the Falk Porsche Fiberglass manufacturing enterprise, the Papenburg company supplying asphalt concrete mixtures for road construction, as well as Hugo Boss, Carl Gross, Digel, Engelbert Strauss, Deutsche Kabel, serve the development of Uzbekistan. In addition, the well-known MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, in cooperation with the Uzavtosanoat JSC, created a joint venture in Samarkand for manufacturing automotive equipment with an authorized capital of 3 million euros. Currently, this plant assembles cars with a carrying capacity of up to 18 tons and buses with a capacity of 37 passengers. The company has a production capacity of four thousand vehicles per year.

In January 2019, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with representatives of Germany - Uzbekistan Business Council, the Eastern Committee of the German Economy, the German Energy Agency, as well as senior executives of CLAAS, Knauf, Siemens Energy, Lasselsberger, Aurubis, Linde Group, Günter Papenburg, Falk-Porsche-Technik, Mangold Consulting, DB Engineering, Landesbank, Commerzbank, KfW and Deutsche Bank. During the talks, issues of further developing bilateral cooperation were discussed.

During the next official visit of the President of Uzbekistan to Germany on 2-3 May 2023, an intergovernmental declaration was signed with Federal President of Germany Frank‑Walter Steinmeier on deepening multifaceted cooperation. At the meeting, they talked about promising projects and programs to enhance innovative and technological partnerships with leading companies in this country. By tradition, the Leader of Uzbekistan also met with leading representatives of German business.

It should be noted that the development of cultural and humanitarian cooperation is under the constant attention of the two countries’ leaders. During his last visit, the President took part in opening an exhibition of the cultural and historical heritage of the Uzbek people in Berlin. An agreement was also reached on preparing a comprehensive Program for studying the German language in Uzbekistan and further expanding the activities of the Goethe Institute in Tashkent.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at the invitation of Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, will visit Berlin on September 28-30. The President of Uzbekistan is expected to hold bilateral talks with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal President Frank‑Walter Steinmeier and attend the meeting of the heads of state of Central Asia and Germany. The Leader of Uzbekistan will also participate in business events organized by the Eastern Committee of German Economy.

Relations between Uzbekistan and Germany are consistently developing today thanks to the strong will and practical efforts of the two countries’ leaders. This visit of the President of Uzbekistan to Germany will also raise mutually beneficial collaboration between the two countries to a new level.

Irismat Abdukhalikov, UzA