American Chamber
of Commerce in Uzbekistan
TIFA
Meeting of the U.S., Central Asian Trade and Investment Framework Agreement Held in TashkentThe Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Investment and Trade recently hosted a meeting of economic and trade delegations from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. An Afghanistan delegation participated as an observer. This was the sixth meeting regarding the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).
N. Najimov, First Deputy Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade, mentioned in his opening remarks that the agenda of the meeting would be very tough. The agenda would include a session on Public-Private Partnerships during the morning with participation of American business representatives, and an afternoon session regarding Government-to-Government partnerships.
Welcoming remarks came from the U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Richard Norland, Madelyn E. Spirnak, senior advisor for Regional Economic Coordination, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and Head of the U.S. delegation, and Michael Feldman, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), among others.
The Public-Private session of the TIFA meeting was dedicated to the development of transport, customs and tourism infrastructures on the Great Silk Road and included discussions regarding the improvement of transport infrastructure, equipment of customs terminals with modern control equipment, creation of depot and service centers as well as catering and hotel networks.
Eric Stewart, senior international advisor from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, presented several reports on these issues that have been done by that organization.
Other presentations were given by Martin Marmy, secretary general of the International Road Transport Union, and K. Sidiknazarov, chairman of the International Association of Automobile Carriers of Uzbekistan.
As a TIFA tradition, each country participant presented its potential and recent developments in the area of trade and investment. The Public-Private Partnership session wrapped up with a presentation on the Navoi Free Industrial Economic Zone.
In the afternoon session regarding Government-to-Government partnerships, issues discussed included development of trade and investment cooperation in the region, local procurement mechanism and possibilities for capacity building in the region, an update on the Northern Distribution Network, Afghanistan –Central Asia economic ties in the context of development programs, and other vital topics.
By Tatyana Bystrushkina, AmCham Executive Director
