Результаты конференции 19-sentabr | Page 37

Statement of the Deputy of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Kodirjon Juraev Ladies and gentlemen, Participants and guests of today's event! For almost 27 years, Uzbekistan and Germany have maintained trusting and close relations, not only in the political, but also in the cultural and economic spheres. It should be noted that over the past years our countries have established a close partnership, which is characterized by dynamism and a high level of mutual trust. The Uzbek people will never forget that Germany was one of the first countries, which recognized our independence and still firmly supports the state sovereignty of our Republic, providing real assistance in the implementation of large-scale democratic and socio-economic reforms. At present, two sides established and effectively operate the institutional mechanisms of inter – state relations with political consultations through the ministries of foreign affairs, the intergovernmental working group on trade and investment, the Uzbek-German business Council, the intergovernmental Commission on German issues in Uzbekistan. Moreover, the sides formed a comprehensive legal framework consisting of more than 140 agreements. Cultural and humanitarian ties are also actively developing between our countries. Today in Uzbekistan, representative offices of the Goethe Institute, Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Central management of schools abroad etc., are successfully operating. As President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted, «in the future we should continue our joint work to strengthen Uzbek-German relations on all issues of bilateral and multilateral agenda of our cooperation on the basis of the principles of mutual respect, equality and consideration of each other's interests». As you know, in the past two years, Uzbekistan has been carrying out large-scale reforms to liberalize the foreign exchange market, ensure the protection of property rights, create a competitive environment, reduce the role of the state in the economy, the develop the public-private partnership. These measures create favorable opportunities for further deepening of trade, economic and investment cooperation between the two countries. We are confident that the current changes in Uzbekistan contribute to the further development of relations between our countries. Moreover, there is a mutual desire of both Uzbek and German to actively participate in the development of bilateral relations. With regard to the prospects of relations, in our opinion, we could successfully cooperate with German side in many directions. The first area is trade and economic ties. Although mutual trade is developing dynamically, there is a huge potential in bilateral relations that not realized yet. In addition, in 37