BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16
By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:
One of Poland's crucial goals in relations with Uzbekistan is to increase the value of trade as well as possible investment in this country, Press Office Director of Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrzej Fafara told Trend in an interview.
"We express our satisfaction with the growing trade turnover between our countries in recent years (period from 2017 through 2019) but the potential of bilateral cooperation in this field still remains untapped. It is worth noting that in those years the Polish export to Uzbekistan increased significantly – more than doubled (from 69,5 million euros in 2017 to 161,1 million euros in 2019), which was one of the best results achieved by Polish companies around the world. We hope to maintain this trend in the coming years – after successful overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in our countries," noted Fafara.
The official pointed out that Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is interested in organizing the seventh meeting of the Polish-Uzbek Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation in Warsaw as soon as possible.
As Fafara said, this would be an important step towards deepening bilateral economic and investment cooperation.
"We see many opportunities for deepening economic cooperation, in particular in the fields of energy, agro-industrial sector, construction, IT, pharmaceutical and light industry. It is also worth considering to take advantage of Polish experience in implementing pro-ecological “green” and energy-saving transformation projects in Uzbekistan," stated press office director of Poland’s MFA.
As he said, Poland constantly supports the efforts of the authorities of Uzbekistan as part of the WTO accession procedure. Poland also opt for the strongest possible economic relations between Uzbekistan and the European Union, which will allow to strengthen trade relations of Uzbekistan with EU countries and increase the investment attractiveness of this country.
Fafara added, that The WTO provides a forum for negotiating agreements aimed at reducing obstacles to international trade.
“Joining WTO can provide Uzbekistan with the privileges that other countries receive from their WTO membership and the security that the WTO trading rules provide. The WTO also provides its members with a fair method to resolve trade disputes and thus the risk of conflicts is diminished. The WTO provides each member the 'Most Favoured Nation' status, which means that WTO members must treat each other the same and not give preferential trade benefit to any member without giving it to all. Uzbekistan as the WTO member-country would benefit from the lower trade barriers with all the WTO members including import quotas, tariffs, regulations. Larger markets bring greater sales, more jobs, and faster economic growth,” he explained.
Also, Fafara stressed that obtaining the status of a beneficiary country of EU's the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) will help Uzbekistan to decrease poverty and generate new jobs. The initiative supports the beneficiary countries in a process of their integration into the world economy as well.
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