TASHKENT (AKIPress.com) — Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov met July 13 with World Bank (WB) Regional Director for Central Asia Lilia Burunciuc, who arrived in Tashkent as the head of a representative delegation to hold bilateral negotiations.

According to WB, Uzbekistan’s economy has grown rapidly over the past decade and lifted significant parts of the population out of poverty. Increased exports of gas, gold, and copper, combined with high commodity prices, have generated revenues that have financed large increases in investment and salaries to bolster consumption However, commodity export volumes will likely plateau, and world prices are not expected to return to the levels of the past decade anytime soon. Uzbekistan will need, therefore, to find new drivers of economic growth in the future. The country’s reform agenda needs to put the economy on a more sustainable path of income growth and job creation.

World Bank thinks that Uzbekistan needs to foster a business climate conducive to private investment that will support SMEs, as well as large companies, in order to create high-quality jobs and increase exports, while ensuring environmental sustainability and inclusive growth.

Lilia Burunciuc

Since joining the World Bank in 1996, Lilia Burunciuc held a range of increasingly challenging positions: Manager in Operations Policy and Country Services; Country Manager for Macedonia; Country Program Coordinator for Southern Africa and Central Asia; Senior Country Officer for Ukraine and Belarus.

She has strong and diversified World Bank experience in leading teams and complex operational and corporate assignments such as regional and country strategies, World Bank’s operations simplification and coding reform. She has extensive experience on leading policy dialogue with governments on various aspects of development. She led the preparation of the first World Bank regional strategy for Central Asia.

Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Burunciuc was a Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Moldova (central bank). In that capacity she worked on the establishment of a regulatory framework for the foreign exchange market, reform of banking supervision and bank restructuring.

She has a master of public administration degree from George Washington University (USA) and a degree (master level) in Economics, Management and Planning form the Technical University of Moldova.