Igor Shuvalov: Uzbekistan is a country with huge potential

Cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation has gained wide scale. The state visit of the President of our country Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Russia in April 2017 contributed to rising bilateral relations in all areas to a new level, intensified mutual contacts.

First Deputy Chairman of Russian government Igor Shuvalov in his interview to UzA spoke about the meetings held in the framework of his working visit to our country:

-Friendly relations have been developed between Presidents of our countries. The government of the Russian Federation was instructed to support and implement all joint projects of mutual interest.

I was recently appointed co-chair of the Uzbek-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on economic cooperation. I think it's a big responsible job. Uzbekistan has a rich history and huge potential, the biggest country in Central Asia.

At the meeting with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev we discussed mutually beneficial and promising projects.

Attention was paid to further development of cooperation in the energy sector, in particular, the production of synthetic fuel. We have great interest in cooperative projects with participation of Uzbekistan, Russia, South Korea, China and other countries.

We discussed expanding capacity of railways to increase the volumes of export. Significant volumes of fruits and vegetables are exported from Uzbekistan to Russia. Given its relevance in our market, we want to further expand the partnership in this direction.

In addition, during the meeting we discussed issues of expansion of cooperation in science and education.

We visited one of the oldest markets of Tashkent, which at the same time has a modern look. Markets in Uzbekistan are not only shopping centers, but also a kind of cultural centers. We would like to create such markets in Russia as well.