On September 26, during the 9th Annual Meeting of the AIIB Board of Governors in Samarkand, Uzbekistan’s Minister of Investments, Industry, and Trade, Laziz Kudratov, met with Nikolai Podguzov, Chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), to discuss enhancing bilateral cooperation.

Podguzov emphasized Uzbekistan’s growing role as a key regional partner and revealed plans to include the country among the EDB’s major shareholder nations in the near future. The meeting concluded with agreements on several joint initiatives, including five sovereign projects valued at $3.3 billion, set to begin this year.

The EDB also announced plans to open a representative office in Tashkent by the end of the year, aimed at accelerating financing for priority projects and further strengthening collaboration between the two parties.