Shavkat Mirziyoyev receives World Bank Vice President Cyril Muller

On July 19, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev received the World Bank delegation led by Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, Cyril Muller.

Welcoming the guests, the Head of the state noted with deep satisfaction the achieved level of long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation between Uzbekistan and the World Bank.

Today, the Bank actively supports and is directly involved in promoting structural reforms in priority sectors in Uzbekistan.

On July 18 this year, the first session of the Economic Council and the roundtable discussion on reforms in the energy sector were successfully held in Tashkent. The two sides jointly identified the principal interaction priorities, specific programs and long-term cooperation projects.

Currently, the total portfolio of executed projects and those under implementation in Uzbekistan exceeds 5.2 billion US dollars. Since the beginning of this year alone, the World Bank approved new loans worth over 850 million USD, which cover such areas as development of entrepreneurship, preschool education, employment promotion and others.

Projects are being developed for modernization of agriculture and municipal infrastructure, co-financing of “Obod qishloq” (Prosperous village) program, development of digital economy.

Current issues of expanding partnership between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the World Bank were considered at the meeting.

Special attention was paid to issues of reforming the banking and financial sector and public enterprises, the advancement of education, entrepreneurship and agriculture, as well as implementation of infrastructure projects on conditions of public private partnership.

Cyril Muller expressed his sincere gratitude to the President of Uzbekistan for the warm welcome and conveyed the greetings and best wishes of the President of World Bank Group David Malpass.

It was emphasized that the Bank highly appreciates the dynamics and effectiveness of the structural reforms underway in Uzbekistan in priority sectors.

Cyril Muller reaffirmed the World Bank’s strong commitment to expanding the multi-dimensional cooperation with Uzbekistan for sustainable development of the country and the entire region.