TURKMENBASHI, Turkmenistan, October 8.
Uzbekistan has proposed holding the first Central Asia-Azerbaijan
business forum in 2027, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on
Oct. 8 at the eighth Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of
Central Asia and Azerbaijan in Avaza, Turkmenistan, Trend’s special correspondent
reports.


“We can practically build a common space for cooperation based
on historical, economic and transport ties. Today, we have an
opportunity to make these ties much stronger and fill them with
concrete substance. This is a vast space where our countries can
jointly develop trade, transport, energy, industry and new
technologies. We need to strengthen the foundations on which our
regional dialogue is built,” he said.


Mirziyoyev proposed continuing work to improve the legal
framework governing the Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State
of Central Asia and Azerbaijan.


“At the same time, the number of documents in itself does not
solve anything. It is much more important that the decisions
already adopted are implemented and deliver the results for which
they were made,” he said.


The Uzbek president said economic cooperation should be raised
to a new level.







“We have already set ambitious goals for increasing mutual trade
and investment. Now we need to determine what will drive this
growth. First and foremost, this means joint industrial and
technological value chains, shared digital services and investment
mechanisms that will allow major projects to be launched more
quickly. An important role here should be played by a comprehensive
regional program for trade and economic cooperation through 2035.
It should become a practical tool to help us use the region’s main
advantage — our common geography. To achieve this, we need to
consistently remove trade barriers, expand industrial cooperation
and launch major joint projects. We have reached a point where
ordinary trade with one another is no longer enough. We need to
create finished products together. The formula ‘six economies — one
product’ captures well what we should strive for. When companies
from several countries participate in a single production chain and
jointly create products, entirely different ties emerge between our
economies. They are much stronger than ordinary trade in goods. To
advance this work, we propose holding the first Central
Asia-Azerbaijan business forum in 2027. At the same time, I
consider it important to establish a dedicated platform for
financial and technical support for joint investment projects.
Major ideas often require not only investment, but also substantial
preparation, expertise, clear financial instruments and support. We
propose tasking the Council of Ministers of Trade and Investment
with examining this issue in detail at its next meeting in
Ashgabat,” he said.


Mirziyoyev also said the countries of the region need to be
connected by a modern transport and logistics network.


“We can become one of the key land routes of global trade and,
at the same time, a major center of economic activity. But simply
building roads and railways is not enough. We need a common
approach to developing transport infrastructure.


Major projects need to be coordinated so that routes connect and
operate as a single system. Production facilities, logistics
services and industrial zones should emerge along new transport
corridors. This would allow transport routes to generate economic
activity around them and deliver much greater benefits to every
country through which they pass,” he said.