Azerbaijan’s Shusha city hosted the Forum of official think tanks of the member states of the Organization of Turkic States.

First Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Akramjon Nematov, called the development of industrial cooperation through the use of competitive advantages and complementarity of the countries’ economies one of the important aspects of cooperation within the framework of the OTS.

It was noted that Uzbekistan has sufficient potential for the development of this direction. Thus, over the past 5 years, measures have been taken to modernize and stimulate the development of real sector industries.

The number of enterprises with foreign investment doubled to 12,000. The number of small industrial zones increased from 63 to 114, and free economic zones from 7 to 23. Seven technology parks and 415 industrial clusters were created. For a successful business, Uzbekistan has introduced a visa-free regime with more than 90 countries. The volume of industrial production increased 3 times, and the share of industry in GDP from 19.5% to 27.8%. By 2026 it is planned to increase the volume of industrial production by 1.4 times.

It should be noted that by the decision of the 7th forum, which was held in Istanbul in 2021, the next 8th Forum of official think tanks of the OTS member states and observers will be held in November in Tashkent.

Gayrat Khonnazarov, UzA