OREANDA-NEWS. On June 11, 2009 UAE Minister of Economy Sultan Al Mansouri held talks with Uzbekistan's First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Rustum Azimov over mechanisms to boost economic relations and tap available investment opportunities, WAM reported.

Al Mansouri, who is leading a high-level delegation of representatives of government and private sector to Uzbekistan, said there is a need for expanding the base of joint cooperation to explore new investment sectors.

"The global financial crisis has boosted our self-confidence and underscored, at the same time, the importance of self-reliance and acquisition of potentials and self-determination to make change and devise independent economic policy," he added.

"There is a new world through which we can not only develop bilateral relations but also integrate them completely," he said, highlighting the importance of giving more attention to industrial cooperation as one of the key objectives of the UAE economic strategy.

The Uzbek minister said his country would like to draw lessons from the UAE's experiment on development and world competitiveness.

He added that there were promising avenues of cooperation in areas like tourism, real estate and logistical transport.

He outlined developments being carried by UAE firms like Masdar and IPIC in his country.