September 22, 2010

Politics:
Islam Karimov meets Ban Ki-Moon
President Karimov holds talks with US companies


POLICY

Islam Karimov meets Ban Ki-Moon

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov met with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at UN headquarters in New York. Prior to the talks, the head of our state had made a record in the book of honorary guests of the UN.

“There is a growing interest of the UN to Uzbekistan and Central Asian states,” said Islam Karimov. “We highly appreciate the cooperation with UN in ensuring peace and stability in our region, strengthening security, combating drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and other threats, addressing environmental problems and efficient use of water and energy resources.”

Strong ties have been established between Uzbekistan and UN agencies such as UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Health Organization, and this cooperation is actively developing, President Karimov noted. Uzbekistan cooperates with the UN in many areas. The agenda of mutual relations, in addition to security issues, environment, economic development, education and health also includes issues such as reforming UN and enhancement efficiency of its bodies.

The Republic of Uzbekistan proposes to consolidate different UN structures in the country to a single representation. This will lead to effective coordination which only contributes to further development and intensification of the cooperation between Uzbekistan and UN.

The UN highly appreciates the cooperation with Uzbekistan, and pays special attention to relations with the country and the whole Central Asian region, Ban Ki-moon noted during the meeting. The sides exchanged views on issues of the further development of relations between Uzbekistan and UN.

President Karimov holds talks with US companies

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.