Brief information on the Project
The project “Sustainable Development in Rural Areas of Uzbekistan”,co-funded by the European Union, is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the French Agency for the Development of International Cooperation in the Areas of Agriculture, Food and Rural Space (ADECIA), the Italian Breeders Association (AIA) and the Bulgarian Centre for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED). The project activities started in 2016 with support of the Ministry of Economy and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Information on the activity
On the 26th of April, a field Steering Committee meeting of the EU co-funded Project “Sustainable Development in Rural Areas of Uzbekistan” was held in Gulistan, Syrdarya region. This time the meeting was hosted by one of pilot project partner, Gulistan State University and opened by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Saidkamol Khodjaev. The meeting was attended by Head of Department of the Ministry of Economy and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan, EU Delegation to Uzbekistan, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Representatives of the Khokimyats from the 6 pilot regions of the project. In the course of the meeting Steering Committee members were given a close look to project implementation status and progress of the Farmers’ cooperatives established within the framework of the project. Another topic of the meeting was the presentation of the draft of the Strategy for Sustainable Social and Economic Development of Syrdarya region developed by the Institute of Forecasting and Macroeconomic research with support from the Bulgarian Centre for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED).
During his welcoming speech, the Deputy Minister ofAgriculture put emphasis on the current reforms taken in the field of agriculture in Uzbekistan and also shortly addressed the directions for further development. At the same time, Mr. Khodjaev expressed the gratitude and highlighted the importance of the work done by the project to contribute and support those reforms especially in the view of newly adopted Presidential Decree #42/39 dated March 14, 2019, about cooperation. The representative of the Ministry of Economy and Industry of RUz, Ms. Yulduz Abduganieva, in her turn, addressed the importance of project efforts in the field of institutional strengthening and strategy development. Furthermore, Ms. Abduganieva noted the positive impact of the series of training conducted for the staff of the Ministry including regional departments in the field of regional development and project implementation taking into account the experience of European countries. All Steering committee members stated the commitment to support the project in the implementation of the activities and agreed, that meeting was held in a very informative and constructive way.
The fact that the session was held in one of the projects pilot regions, gave an opportunity to all participants to get acquaintance with project activities on-site. Particularly, after the meeting, the group visited the soil nutrient analysis laboratory established on the basis of Gulistan State University and further stopped at the pomegranate demo orchard run by Pomegranate producers’ Cooperative “Dehkanabad Asl Anori” which was established with the Project initiative. The meeting with cooperative members was organized at the orchard. The Deputy Khokim of Mirzaobod district who also joined the meeting welcomed all participants. The meeting was conducted as an open dialogue to discuss cooperative challenges and further prospective.
