Saida Mirziyoyeva, First Assistant to the President of Uzbekistan and Head of the Presidential Administration, Meets with Director Zhang Yuanming

On March 24, Saida Mirziyoyeva, First Assistant to the President of Uzbekistan and Head of the Presidential Administration, met in Tashkent with ZHANG Yuanming, Director of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). During the meeting, ZHANG Yuanming provided a briefing on the Tashkent headquarters of the CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia (RCEECA), including its mission, construction progress, and the outcomes of bilateral cooperation between China and Uzbekistan.

ZHANG Yuanming first introduced China’s achievements in desertification control, the development of desert-based economies, saline-alkali land management, and the construction of China’s Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program. He then focused on the RCEECA’s current progress, the results achieved, and its future plans. In addition, he put forward five recommendations for desertification control and green sustainable development in the Central Asian region: (i) Establish a Research Office for desertification control and desert economy at the Green University in Uzbekistan; (ii) Build a knowledge-sharing center for desertification control in Central Asia; (iii) Establish a green technology park to attract more institutions and international organizations to collaborate through RCEECA; (iv) Implement national-level demonstration projects on desertification control and ecological restoration in Uzbekistan; (v) Establish an intergovernmental scientific committee on desertification and land degradation in Central Asia.

Saida Mirziyoyeva has voiced strong interest and high appreciation for China's successful strategies in desertification control. She extended thanks to XIEG for its contributions to bilateral scientific and technological cooperation and its efforts to combat desertification in Central Asia. She underscored the significance of developing the RCEECA headquarters in Tashkent. She expressed her expectation that China's advanced desertification control technologies will be effectively transferred and applied in Uzbekistan and across Central Asia, and pledged to report on these developments and progress to the President of Uzbekistan.

Aziz Abdukhakimov, Chairman of the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change of Uzbekistan, also attended the briefing.

Contact

LONG Huaping

Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography

E-mail: longhp@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Web: http://english.egi.cas.cn