Uzbekistan stands for expansion of investment, trade and economic cooperation with Singapore
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — In recent years, Uzbekistan’s diplomatic activity has consistently expanded beyond the borders of nearby regions. A vivid evidence of this is the state visit of the President of Uzbekistan to Singapore, designed to expand the geography of relations between our republic and the states of Southeast Asia.
Singapore, being one of the leading countries in the rapidly developing region, is considered by Uzbekistan as a reliable and key partner.
Despite the geographical remoteness, our countries are actively looking for new opportunities to expand multilateral cooperation that can give a new impetus to interstate relations.
It should be noted that since gaining independence in 1965, Singapore has demonstrated an unprecedented high rate of economic development. This allowed the country to deservedly take an honorable place among the four “Asian tigers” along with such economic giants as South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
However, of particular interest to Uzbekistan, given the ongoing large-scale economic reforms in the country aimed at improving the investment image, is Singapore’s experience in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).
For many decades, this state pursued an “open economy” policy, creating favorable conditions for the activities of foreign companies that placed production here using direct investment tools.
As a result, today Singapore is one of the most attractive places in the world for FDI inflows.
Only in the period from 2010 to 2020, the country managed to increase the accumulated volume of FDI more than three times and by the beginning of 2021 it exceeded US$2 trillion.
Deeply aware of the wide opportunities of Singapore’s experience in attracting foreign investment, the President of Uzbekistan during his state visit identified support for investment and expansion of mutual trade as one of the priority areas of bilateral cooperation.
It is noteworthy that by now the two countries have already formed a stable foundation for investment, trade and economic cooperation.
Thus, in the period from 2016 to 2021, there was a positive trend in bilateral trade, which almost doubled and amounted to US$179 million.
In turn, the total investment from Singapore to Uzbekistan reached almost US$700 million.
In 2022 alone, US$38 million of investment from Singapore was disbursed, and to date, together with Singaporean partners, a list of 15 new investment projects worth over US$4 billion has been formed.
The main investment partner of Uzbekistan is the Singaporean company Indorama Corporation, which since 2010 has implemented 3 investment projects in our country worth US$650 million. The most successful example is the activity of the Indorama Kokand Textile enterprise, a distinctive feature of which is the production of 100% combed cotton yarn.
Along with this, as of the end of last year, 105 enterprises in the electrical, textile, food and other industries, created with the participation of Singaporean investors, operate in Uzbekistan.
However, the countries do not intend to rest on the progress made. Thus, during the visit, the heads of the two states agreed to establish an Uzbek-Singapore investment company with an authorized capital of US$500 million. In case of its successful implementation, the countries will receive a strong institution to finance joint projects.
Moreover, on the eve of the visit, an Uzbek-Singaporean business forum was held in Singapore, during which topical areas for economic partnership were also identified, including the chemical, pharmaceutical and textile industries, agriculture, healthcare, education, transport and logistics and IT- technologies. As a result, more than 20 contracts and cooperation agreements were signed.
Thus, it can be said with confidence that Uzbekistan and Singapore have a colossal untapped potential for investment, trade and economic cooperation. The state visit of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev made it possible to identify a number of promising areas for further cooperation, which, no doubt, will bring bilateral relations to a qualitatively new level.
Azamat Sulimanov,
Leading Researcher, ISMI
under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan
