CIDCA vice-chairman addresses seminar at 9th AIIB annual meeting

Zhao Fengtao, vice-chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), attended the 9th Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from Sept 25 to 26, and delivered a speech at the host country seminar session.

In his speech, Zhao said that China and Uzbekistan are friendly neighbors with a shared future. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties more than 30 years ago, bilateral cooperation has expanded and yielded fruitful results, he said, adding that China is ready to deepen cooperation and provide support and assistance to Uzbekistan's economic and social development and improvement of people's livelihood.

He emphasized the need to seize new cooperation opportunities, noting that China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative (GDI) have created new prospects for China-Uzbekistan cooperation. He called for greater synergy in respective development strategies, greater sharing of state governance experiences and greater cooperation in key areas to complement each other's strengths and achieve win-win results.

To advance development cooperation, efforts will be made to upgrade cooperation in traditional areas such as infrastructure construction and food production and security, and actively explore cooperation in emerging areas such as green energy, with special attention given to pragmatic cooperation in small-yet-smart projects in poverty reduction, people’s livelihoods and healthcare, he added.

He called for more participation of Chinese and foreign enterprises, international organizations and financing institutions in China-Uzbekistan cooperation under the GDI framework, to explore new cooperation paths by means of multi-party participation, diversified resources investment and multi-level alignment. China is willing to continue to expand investment in human resources development cooperation, and share China’s experiences, management skills and professional expertise through bilateral training and the Luban Workshop to help Uzbekistan enhance its self-development capability, he added.

The seminar was hosted by Uzbekistan's Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade. Senior officials from the AIIB and Uzbekistan's ministries of investment, health and education delivered speeches. Representatives from around 80 countries and international organizations attended this annual meeting. Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed the opening ceremony.