The government supports the idea of privatizing Thermal Power Plants – Elyor Ganiyev

The volume of trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates is about $140 million. The parties intend to bring it to $500 million.

This was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister Elyor Ganiyev at the third meeting of the Uzbek-Emirati intergovernmental commission on economic, commercial and technical cooperation.

“We must increase bilateral trade to $500 million and expand the range of products supplied. Uzbekistan is ready to supply food, agricultural, metallurgical products, cars, electrical engineering. Of course, for qualitative and timely accomplishment of the goals set, we need to create a trading platform that will play the role of a bridge between the countries. In this regard, we suggest opening a joint trading house in Dubai in the coming months,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

He also noted that the government fully supports the project of the Ministry of Economy of the UAE and the company Mubadala Utilities on privatization of a number of thermal power plants, as well as construction of new ones within the framework of the PPP.

In addition, the Abu Dhabi Development Fund is implementing several joint projects in Samarkand. In particular, the fund allocates a concessional loan to improve the city infrastructure: expansion of roads, provision of clean drinking water.

Also, in cooperation with the National bank of Uzbekistan, it is planned to construct a shopping center and an international hotel in Samarkand.

One of the key issues of the meeting was discussing further steps to expand investment and form an investment portfolio of a joint investment company with an authorized capital of $1 billion. Its founders will be the Abu Dhabi Development Fund and the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan.

Agreements were signed in October 2018 within the framework of the Uzbek-Emirates business forum.

During the meeting of the intergovernmental commission, the issues of cooperation in the field of geological exploration, production and deep processing hydrocarbons with participation of the company Mubadala and cooperation in the field of renewable energy with the company Masdar were also discussed. 

Earlier, it was reported that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) had become a consultant to Uzbekneftegaz.