Event

Due to unforeseen events, there has been a change in the program of this event. Deputy Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Badriddin Abidov will step in for the First Deputy Chair of the Senate, Sodiq Safoyev. Abidov is also Uzbekistan’s representative to the UN Human Security Trust Fund for the Aral Sea.

After Shavkat Mirziyoyev was elected President of Uzbekistan on 4 December 2016, he quickly launched a comprehensive reform agenda, including facilitating increased economic cooperation and foreign investment. Under the long-term rule of Islam Karimov (1991–2016), Uzbekistan had been closed and inward-oriented. Mirziyoyev’s new policy has created a new regional dynamism. With Uzbekistan being the region’s most industrialized and most populous country, the country is now facilitating regional cooperation in Central Asia.

At the seminar, Sodiq Safoyev, First Deputy Chair of the Senate, the upper chamber of Uzbekistan’s parliament, and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2003–2005) will share his views on the reform agenda and its impact on the dynamics in the wider region.

The seminar will be moderated by NUPI Senior Research Fellow Roman Vakulchuk.