OREANDA-NEWS. September 24, 2010. President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov held negotiations with high-level representatives of General Motors, Sikorsky Aircraft and Honeywell companies in New York, US on 20 September.

At the talks with deputy chairman of General Motors Thomas Stephens, Islam Karimov said that Uzbekistan was dynamically developing the car industry, and the cooperation with the GM had a great importance in this aspect.

Over the short span of time since GM entered the automobile industry of Uzbekistan, several new models of cars were launched at the plant in Asaka, Andijan region.

This August, GM Uzbekistan started production of a new model called Spark. The annual capacity is 50,000 cars, almost half of which will be exported.

Having become an important part of the GM’s global network, the Uzbek automobile sector has been strengthening its positions on the foreign markets.

Cooperation with GM also plays an important part in attracting foreign investments for new projects in the car production industry, Islam Karimov said.

Thomas Stephens said General Motors highly valued its cooperation with Uzbekistan and was interested in further expansion of the relations.

The leader of Uzbekistan also met Jeffrey Pino, president of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., which is one of the leaders in aircraft production.

Islam Karimov and Jeffrey Pino considered issues of expansion of mutual cooperation. Head of Sikorsky Aircraft said his company was interested in cooperation with Uzbekistan.

President Islam Karimov then received David Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell. The head of the state said Uzbekistan could become a link for the American corporation in entering new market.

Uzbekistan is interested in attracting Honeywell technologies and investments in order to open new modern sectors of economy.

David Cote said Uzbekistan is a country with high intellectual potential and rich mineral resources, and Honeywell sees broad perspectives for cooperation with the country.

The sides discussed issues of expansion of cooperation with Honeywell, including development of joint projects.