This assessment was made by the First Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Akramjon Nematov, speaking at the international scientific and practical conference “Eurasia in the New International Context: Economy, Politics, Security”, organized as part of the Primakov Readings at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to him, today, Uzbekistan, together with partners, including Russia, is consistently carrying out systematic work to form and strengthen reliable and safe production and logistics chains in the region, promoting a new model of economic cooperation based on the development of intraregional trade, industrial and technological structure.

The expert noted that Central Asia, whose stability and sustainable development are key priorities of Uzbekistan’s foreign policy, will be the beneficiaries of this. The political scientist emphasized that this will also contribute to achieving Uzbekistan’s goal of transforming Central Asia into an important industrial and technological hub, an integral link in interregional connectivity, and a capacious and promising market.

At the same time, according to Akramjon Nematov, Uzbekistan’s and Central Asia’s openness accelerates the process of industrial and technological transformation. “Thanks to the pragmatic and balanced policies of our countries, healthy competition is maintained in the region, and investments and technologies are coming in.

Over 22 years, the volume of foreign investments accumulated by the Central Asian states has grown more than 20 times – from 12.2 to 251.4 billion dollars. According to international experts, by 2030, the Central Asian states will be able to attract about 170 billion dollars of foreign investments”, said the ISRS representative.

At the same time, according to the expert, high dynamics of investment inflow are observed mainly in Uzbekistan, which over the past 6 years has attracted 14.6 billion dollars of Chinese investments, increasing their volumes by 6 times, 7.5 billion dollars of Korean investments and 1.2 billion dollars of Turkish investments, which in turn showed a threefold increase. The specified investments are directed at creating industrial clusters, biotechnology parks, semiconductor industry, design, and technology centers, the ultimate goal of which is to form added value. In general, over the past 4 years, the volume of investments in fixed capital has grown from 24% to 35% of GDP with a growth of 1.5 times, and the level of development has increased to 22 billion dollars in 2023. 

Thus, Mr. Nematov is convinced that Central Asia is increasingly turning into a new, promising trade and economic crossroads of interests, which now and in the future will serve the everyday tasks of developing creative processes throughout the vast Eurasian space.

UzA