The Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) sees strengthening ties with the media on a global scale as its strategic task. This was stated by UzA Director-General Abdusaid Kuchimov in an interview with the Emirates News Agency – WAM.

WAM was founded in 1976. It is the main news agency of the UAE and widely covers the most important socio-political, economic, cultural and other events in the country and in the world. The Agency cooperates with about 50 leading news agencies from around the world.

Uzbekistan is doing all efforts to develop its media sector and help expand the media outlets’ creative cooperation with the global media, the UzA chief said.

“Over the past 5 years, 10 new television channels have been opened in our country, more than 20 online portals have been registered. In general, the number of media outlets in Uzbekistan increased by 30 percent during the same period”, Kuchimov revealed.

About 1962 media outlets are operating in Uzbekistan and 1232 of them, about 63 percent, are non-state media, he added. Around 39 of them are television studios and channels, 33 are radio stations and 557 are websites, the news agency chief explained.

“We have concluded contracts, memorandums, agreements with the news agencies of all the states of Central Asia, Azerbaijan and dozens of news agencies of the world”, noted the official who signed a cooperation agreement with the Emirates News Agency (WAM) during his visit to the UAE last week.

The agreement signed by Mohammed Jalal Al Rayssi, Director-General of WAM, and Kuchimov aims to promote the exchange of news and conduct joint employee training programmes.

Al Rayssi highlighted WAM’s eagerness to establish a wide network of partnerships with international media outlets, and his delight to host UzA at the Global Media Congress in November.

Talking about the UzA’s development plans, Kuchimov said, “To be honest, in my opinion, we have a lot to do”.

Although the agency is providing news in nine languages, including Arabic, Russian, French and English, it wants to further expand its reach. 

“I hope our Agency will soon have its own office in UAE. We are also planning to open offices in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Europe and America”, he said.