Tashkent [Uzbekistan], June 30: Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has tasked the government to generate an additional 9 billion U.S. dollars in revenue per year by processing yarn into finished products and attracting foreign brands, the president's press service said Wednesday.
The Uzbek leader set a goal to attract 50 popular foreign brands to the country's textile industry and announced new subsidies and incentives for exporters of textile products.
Mirziyoyev said that after an international boycott on Uzbek cotton was lifted early this year, foreign companies have been showing great interest in products produced in Uzbekistan.
"If (foreign) brands are not brought to our regions, it will be difficult for domestic products to compete in the world market," said Mirziyoyev.
Since 2016, the country's volume of textile production has increased by five times, and exports by four times, reaching almost 3 billion dollars, the press service said, adding that during this time reprocessing of cotton has risen to 100 percent from 40 percent.
However, the degree of processing yarn into finished products still remains low at 23 percent, meaning the industry "is missing a 9 billion dollars opportunity every year," the report said.
Uzbekistan produces around 3 million tonnes of cotton annually and plans to increase production by implementing new agricultural technologies, including drip irrigation.
Source: Xinhua
