On May 18, the Ministry for Foreign Trade hosted a meeting with the World Bank mission led by Michael Ferrantino, Lead Economist and Global Product Specialist for Trade Policy and Integration at the World Bank and with participation of Vicky Chemutai, a WTO Economic Affairs Officer.

On May 18, the Ministry for Foreign Trade hosted a meeting with the World Bank mission led by Michael Ferrantino, Lead Economist and Global Product Specialist for Trade Policy and Integration at the World Bank and with participation of Vicky Chemutai, a WTO Economic Affairs Officer.

The sides highly appreciated the workshop held in Tashkent on “Resumption of the accession process of Uzbekistan to the World Trade Organization”, organized jointly with the Ministry for Foreign Trade, the World Bank Group (WB) and the USAID Agency. The delegation expressed interest in continuing this practice of holding workshops with participation of representatives of ministries and departments of Uzbekistan and international experts on issues of accession to the WTO.

The sides noted the importance of the previously signed agreement on consulting services with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the WB group.

Prospects for development of trade facilitation mechanisms were discussed at the meeting, including such areas as transport, customs regulation and harmonization of legislation.

According to the Press Service of the Ministry, representatives of the World Bank announced their readiness to assist Uzbekistan in issues of development of e-commerce, in particular by attracting experts and conducting research in development of digital economy, as well as services.