First, I would like congratulate Uzbekistan on the opening of the Tashkent International Investment Forum!

During my first visit to Uzbekistan several months ago, I had the opportunity to visit the ancient city of Bukhara, and was much impressed by the fast and large-scale development projects there. The ancient city is becoming a new destination for investments. I believe this is also the case for the whole Uzbekistan.

The development of a state requires a clear goal, continuous efforts and good opportunities. Uzbekistan is currently having this good opportunity. You have a strong leadership of the President, clear development goal, hard-working people and vibrant enterprises. I am confident that the ambition set out in the 2022-2026 Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan will be achieved.

Foreign direct investment and trade are important drivers of economic growth. They are closely related and complementary to each other.

On the one hand, trade policy plays a crucial role in attracting foreign direct investments. Investors' decisions are based on several factors, such as market size, cost of inputs, investment environment, and the legal system of the host country. A sound trade policy underpins all these factors.

On the other hand, we are living in a world where global value chains prominently feature in production processes. Most of the traded final goods are not produced in a single country. Trade is no longer about exports of domestically produced goods. It is more about business cooperation with foreign enterprises and multi-nationals. Both trade policy and investment policy are about integrating the country into the global value chains. In this context, the accession of Uzbekistan to WTO becomes very pertinent to today's forum.

WTO membership entails a lot of potential benefits for acceding countries.  Let me elaborate on some of them which I believe are very relevant for Uzbekistan.

First, accession to the WTO will provide immense market access opportunities for Uzbek businesses and exports that will lead to creating additional jobs and significantly raising living standards.

Second, with the further opening up of the domestic market, more Uzbek industries will have the opportunities to cooperate with foreign enterprises through business partnership or joint venture. They will attract additional foreign investment, learn advanced technologies, benefit from rich business management experiences, and thus become more competitive in the international market.

Third, the WTO membership, by bringing Uzbekistan's policies in line with the international trade rules, will help the country improve governance, increase efficiency, and become a fully competitive and dynamic modern economy.

Fourth, WTO cares about micro-, small and medium sized enterprises which account for 95% of companies across the globe and 60% of the world's total employment, but have been hit hard in the COVID-19 pandemic. To help small businesses participate in international trade, an informal working group in the WTO has been working on issues such as cyber-readiness, facilitating imports of low-value shipments, and innovative policies for small businesses. Guidance and good practices have been provided to policymakers. WTO membership will enable Uzbek small business to benefit from international markets.

Uzbekistan has resumed its WTO accession process in the past few years. WTO Members are supportive of the accession process and keen to see progress and welcome Uzbekistan as a fully-fledged member of the Organization.

Accession to the WTO is never easy for any country. But I am confident that with the joint efforts of Uzbekistan, the existing WTO Members and relevant international development organizations, Uzbekistan can become a fully-fledged WTO Member in the coming years.

Just now I mentioned that Uzbekistan has everything but one. What the country is missing is the multilateral trading system that provides a fair and predictable international business environment.

2022 is the Year of Tiger in the lunar calendar. In China, there is an old saying which goes like further empowering a tiger by bringing to it a pair of wings. I believe the pair of wings for Uzbekistan is the WTO membership. I wish that Uzbekistan gets its empowering wings as soon as possible. Thank you.