Exchange Diplomatic Notes necessary for entering into force of the Japan-Uzbekistan agreement on liberalization, encouragement and protection of investments were signed in the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Uzbekistan in Tashkent on 25 August.

The document was signed by the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Uzbekistan Anvar Salikhbaev and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Uzbekistan Tsutomu Hiraoka.

The Japan-Uzbekistan Investment Agreement was signed on 15 August 2008 in Tashkent by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov and the Japanese envoy Tsutomu Hiraoka.

The signing of the exchange notes means the completion of corresponding internal procedures necessary for the entering of the Agreement into force. The document will be valid 30 days after the exchange noted are signed.

This agreement is the highest point in the friendship relations between the two countries and shows the new stage in the Japanese-Uzbek economic cooperation. It is also timely because investments and the interest of Japanese private companies in opening new business in Uzbekistan have grown in the past several years.

For example, Sumimoto Corporation (Japan) jointly with the KT Company (South Korea) launched the project of wireless high-speed Internet with the use of the latest technologies in September 2008. Samarkand Automobile Plant has produced 3,400 buses and 1,000 trucks since the launch of manufacture in 2007 with the assistance of Itochu Corporation (Japan) and Isuzu Company. Mitsubishi Corporation and Uzkimyosanoat (Uzbek chemical industry) enterprise are operating a project within the Clean Development Mechanism.

It is expected that the entrance into force of the abovementioned investment agreement will allow to contribute to the further expansion and deepening of business ties between Uzbekistan and Japan, as well as lift bilateral relations, having solid ties at the intergovernmental level, to the new level fastened by the ties in the private sector.