On May 13th, COFCO Chairman Zhao Shuanglian attended a banquet for Chinese and Uzbekistan entrepreneurs jointly held by the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Ministry for Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

In his address to the banquet, Zhao Shuanglian highlighted Uzbekistan as a renowned ancient country along the Silk Road as well as the fifth largest cotton exporter and a major tea consumer country in the world. Based on many years of profound cooperation with Uzbek enterprises, COFCO Corporation will further deepen its ties with outstanding enterprises in Uzbekistan in the future. While strengthening cooperation in cotton and tea businesses, it will fully tap into growth opportunities related to other agricultural by-products, extend the scope of cooperation and expand the scale of cooperation so as to contribute to the deepening of bilateral friendship, the progress of two countries’ development and the enhancement of people’s welfare in both countries.

Uzbekistan is one of China’s major partners along the “Belt and Road”. At present, COFCO Corporation has conducted extensive cooperation with Uzbek enterprises in many sectors including cotton and tea. Uzbekistan attaches great importance to the Belt and Road Initiative and considers it a significant supplement to bilateral cooperation as well as regional economic cooperation.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Chair of State Investment Committee Azim Akhmedkhadjaev, Meng Jianzhu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Chairman of the China-Uzbekistan Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee, and Yu Jianhua, Vice Minister of Commerce of PRC attended the banquet.