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Kazan hosts the Central Asian conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club on the theme: “Russia and Central Asia facing the challenges of the new world – a joint path to the future,” Uzdaily.uz reported.

More than 60 well-known experts from 16 countries are taking part in the conference, including Russia, Afghanistan, Great Britain, Germany, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, France and Estonia. Among the participants are recognized Russian specialists in the Central Asian region and foreign guests of the club: Assistant to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Chairman of the Kazakhstan Council on Foreign Relations Yerlan Karin, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2004-2014 Hamid Karzai, Director of the Center for Russian Studies at East China Pedagogical University Feng Shaolei and other experts.

Uzbekistan is represented by Akramjon Nematov, First Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and Bakhtiyor Mustafayev, Deputy Director of the International Institute of Central Asia.

Speaking at the session New “windows of opportunity” of the world economy for Russia and Central Asia, he analyzed the dynamics of the development of economic relations and the inflow of investments in the region.

According to Akramjon Nematov, the aggregate GDP of the Central Asian countries compared to 2016 showed an increase of 19.2% and amounted to US$295 billion in 2020.

“Mutual trips of citizens of Central Asian countries have quadrupled, the number of joint ventures has grown fivefold, the foreign trade of the region’s countries has grown by 56%,” the expert cited such data.

The stability of established trade and economic ties is confirmed by the test of a pandemic, in the conditions of which there was no significant drop in trade between the countries of the region. For example, in 2020, Uzbekistan’s trade with the countries of the region remained at over US$5 billion, decreasing by only 5.7%. At the same time, the exchange of goods with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has even grown.