On April 10 President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with a delegation of the World Bank Group headed by managing director of operations Anna Bjerde.

Issues of further development of Uzbekistan's full-scale strategic cooperation with the World Bank were discussed, primarily in the sphere of this global financial institution's support to the ongoing strategy of economic reforms in our country.

At the beginning of the meeting, Anna Bjerde conveyed to the Head of our state sincere greetings and best wishes from World Bank President Ajay Banga.

The highest level of productive partnership relations achieved in recent years was noted with deep satisfaction.

Currently, Uzbekistan is one of the largest partners of the bank - the portfolio of projects exceeds $12 billion. The World Bank provides financial, advisory and technical support for the implementation of reforms aimed at ensuring sustainable development of priority sectors of the economy and social sector.

With the bank's assistance, a new procedure has been adopted to improve the mechanism, accelerate the preparation and improve the quality of projects with the participation of international financial institutions.

Priorities for further practical partnership include poverty alleviation, primarily through job creation for women and youth, including in the tourism sector, support for the private sector and public-private partnership programs, transformation and privatization of state-owned enterprises.

Special attention was paid to joint plans in the field of decarbonization, urbanization and modernization of infrastructure, energy efficiency, improvement of the investment climate, assistance in the country's accession to the WTO.

There was also an exchange of views on the promotion of major regional projects.