OREANDA-NEWS. May 07, 2010. President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov met with Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance Naoto Kan in Oqsaroy.

“Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my sincere respect to the leadership and people of Japan. The fact that You personally head the Japanese delegation at the meeting of Asian Development Bank is a great honor for us, and at the same time testifies to the consolidating friendly relations between our countries and peoples year by year starting from the very first days of Uzbekistan’s independence”, the head of state said welcoming the distinguished guest.

Today, bilateral relations between Uzbekistan and Japan are developing rather intensively and entirely in line with the spirit of the 2002 Joint Declaration on Friendship, Strategic Partnership and Cooperation. Japan has been one of the oldest and most reliable investment partners of our nation. The volume of Japanese financial resources drawn into the Uzbek economy reaches two billion US dollars.

Advancement of economic ties has enjoyed a notable impetus by the work of bilateral committees on economic cooperation. At their joint meetings, substantial proposals are singled out to facilitate further consolidation and expansion of mutual interaction in relevant sectors of economy and social development.

Representative offices of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) operate in our country. They have promoted direct contacts between business circles and assisted in the development of social, humanitarian, trade and economic cooperation between our countries. Signed in Tashkent, May 1 in the framework of 43rd Annual Meeting of the Council of Governors of Asian Development Bank (ADB), the latest 300-million-dollar loan agreement between the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and JICA has underscored the consistently enlarging mutually beneficial cooperation.

In Oqsaroy, Naoto Kan thanked the head of our state for the warm welcome and expressed his high appreciation of the effectively implemented anti-crisis program and the one on wide-scale modernization of basically all spheres of life in Uzbekistan.

During the talks it was stressed that ADB’s current international forum in Tashkent has constituted a good opportunity to discuss and appreciate the essence of pressing issues of regional and international significance as well as the further development of investment cooperation.