OREANDA-NEWS.  August 01, 2014. Uzbek and Indian relations date back to centuries. The Great Silk Road relations, oriental culture and literature, Babur and Baburid’s heritage always tie our relations.

These ties have been strengthened and enriched with new contents during the years of independence. The collaboration between Uzbekistan and India is consistently developing in the spirit of trust, equality and mutual interest.

On the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the independence of Uzbekistan, the Charge d’Affaires of the Republic of India to the Republic of Uzbekistan – Mr. Devinder Kumar Sharma expressed his opinions hereon:

- India highly values the cooperation with such fast-growing country as Uzbekistan, - said Mr. Devinder Kumar Sharma. The continual high level meetings of the Heads of two countries are of great importance in the development of mutual relations. Particularly, the relations between India and Uzbekistan have been raised to the level of strategic partnership during the State visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, His Excellency Mr. Islam Karimov during May of 2011 to India. The official visit of the Vice-President of the Republic of India Hamid Ansari that was made during May of 2013 gave a new dimension to mutual relations.

The intensity of collaboration between our countries has been expanding year by year. Political, trade-economic, scientific and technological, social and cultural cooperation is consistently developing. The effective collaboration is being maintained in the fields such as information technologies, mining industry, energy, textile, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.

Several agreements have been signed on trade-economic cooperation, investment security and promotion, bilateral tax exemption, etc. The two countries have implemented measures on the creation of favourable conditions in the field of mutual trade.

Indian businessmen have great interest in investment environment, huge privileges and opportunities that have been created for foreign investors to conduct business activity in Uzbekistan. A lot of joint ventures, which were established in partnership with Indian investors, are carrying on successful business activity. The creation of large economic zones became a significant step in the development of your country. These zones attract considerable interest of foreign investors. The businessmen of our countries are implementing mutually beneficial joint projects.

Uzbekistan and India have similar, close points of views, concerning international and regional issues. Our countries, being strongly against the fundamentalism and terrorism, are making an active contribution to the strengthening of sustainability in the region.

Uzbekistan is attracting great attention of the world with its successful foreign policy and high development. The practical efforts of President Islam Karimov on the settlement of disputes, differences and conflicts, which are occurring in various regions, in a peaceful way by means of political discussions should be precisely underlined. Your country is assisting in the establishment of peace, reconstruction of infrastructure and development of economy of the neighboring country, Afghanistan. It is of utmost importance in the development of countries and in the development of Uzbek and Indian relations.

Attention being turned to the diversification of economy, development of entrepreneurship, enhancement of infrastructure, under the leadership of President Islam Karimov, is serving the speedy development. Uzbekistan, adapted to cultivate raw cotton with a one-sided developed economy, has become a rapidly developing country with modern industry sectors in a short period of time. This fact can be proved by the growth of economy by 4.1 times, the growth of gross per capita income by 8.2 times. And GDP of the country is not less than 8% over the last 9 years.

I would like to emphasize that it is a great result, considering the tough economic environment of today. This is the result of peculiar development path named “Uzbek model” that Uzbekistan has chosen. This famous model, based on the market relations, became a fundamental driving power of the development of Uzbekistan as a legal democratic government construction strategy.

Uzbekistan is well known to Indians for its ancient and magnificent cities such as Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Ferghana as well as famous scholars like Abu Raykhon Beruni, Ibn Sino and Mirza Ulughbek. Particularly, Ferghana region takes a special place in the history of India as a birthplace of an eminent public figure Zakhiriddin Mukhammad Bobur. These factors are serving for consistent development of cooperation between our countries in the sphere of tourism and significant growth of number of Indian tourists to this amazing country.

A number of joint-projects in the sphere of Information Technologies are being worked out and implemented between Uzbekistan and India. I am confident that active cooperation of our countries in this area will have fruitful results. Having highly qualified cadres is the most important requirement of developing IT sector. Uzbekistan is a country of highly educated and talented youth. Several Indian companies operating in this sphere express an interest to set-up their own business in Uzbekistan.

Regular participation of Indian artists and singers at worldwide famous International Music Festival “Sharq taronalari”, conducted once in every two years in Samarkand, is a perfect example of enhanced cultural cooperation between our countries.

It is noteworthy that all reforms being carried out in Uzbekistan are directed at further supporting the prosperity of people and endeavors of the youth. There is no doubt that the youth, who makes over 60% of the total population of Uzbekistan, will become backbone of the social-economic progress of the country in the future.

I believe that wise policy of President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov will give more results in the years to come. Taking the opportunity, I would like to congratulate the people and leadership of Uzbekistan for the upcoming Independence holiday. May development and firm stability of your country continue. I wish good luck to the people of Uzbekistan.