Hyderabad, October 14, 2022: India and Uzbekistan have a long history of cooperation. India was one of the first countries to acknowledge its state sovereignty soon after Uzbekistan’s independence.

Dilshod Akhmatova, Ambassador of Uzbekistan to India was on a day visit to Hyderabad. This was his second visit to the capital Telangana. He interacted with a delegation from the FTCCI Tourism Committee led by its Chairman Valmiki Harikishan. The delegation of FTCCI was comprised of its members Ganesh Rao, Hemanth T Pandya, AV Praveen; D. Ramchandram; DVG Nagendra Rao; AvinashKhanapur and Dinesh Kumar; Siraj Ansari

Interacting with the delegation the Ambassador said both countries share a common culture, heritage, civilization, Tradition, and language. Nearly 5000 words in the Uzbek language are similar to the popular languages spoken in India.

He highlighted a few areas of cooperation between India and Uzbekistan.

The Uzbek government has extended the e-Visa facility to Indian tourists, he informed the delegation

Uzbekistan has also emerged as a significant source of medical tourism with about 8,000 Uzbeks annually seeking medical treatment in India. And the Ambassador added that two delegations comprising Uzbekistan Doctors are getting trained currently at AIG Hospital and Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad. My purpose for this second visit to the city is to visit these hospitals as our doctors are getting trained. And also to explore possibilities for strengthening our relationship with Telangana.

Dilshod Akhmatova, Ambassador of Uzbekistan also highlighted that they were actively pursuing sister city ties with Hyderabad. The sister city agreement between Bukhara city and Hyderabad would be done in near future. This will ensure the mutual exchange of art and culture, education, and trade between the cities. Uzbekistan invites the Hyderabad film industry. We will even pursue incentives if any required to encourage them to do film shootings in Uzbekistan.

Telangana has huge opportunities and potential in IT, Pharma, Tourism, Healthcare and Training. We need English teachers to teach English in Uzbekistan. We would like to attract them. We are also exploring the possibility of rolling out a pilot project for the same. We need teachers in thousands he said.

I have met Mr Srikanth Sinha, CEO of TASK (Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge). We are also exploring possibilities of collaboration for skill development training.

We would like to utilise the Indian experience in Make in India, an initiative by the Government of India. We too would like to Replicate this initiative to make and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products made in Uzbekistan

Next year we are expecting 1.5 lakh Indian tourists to visit Uzbekistan he shared.