On August 8-9, 2019, Advisor to IOFS Acting Director General Baltabay Omarov took part in the Multilateral Forum “Transition from Agricultural and Environmental Problems to Opportunities for Attracting Investments and Innovations to the Aral Sea Basin Region”, organized by the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) with the support of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Tashkent.
In accordance with the program of the event, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khodjaev, Deputy Minister of Innovation Development of the Republic of Azimjon Nazarov, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Bori Alikhanov, General Director of the ICBA Ismakhan Yeluafi and others spoke at the opening of the Forum.
Representatives of the scientific community and experts from the Republic of Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and several other international organizations, emphasized the importance of urgent and effective measures aimed at saving the Aral Sea and preventing the ever-growing scale of the ecological disaster in the Aral Sea region. According to experts, drying out of the Aral Sea poses a serious threat to the food security of the countries of the region.
The Forum held discussions with the participants of the event. During the meeting with the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan D. Khojaev, issues related to the activities of the IOFS, the agenda for the upcoming General Assembly (August 27-29, 2019, in Jeddah city) of the IOFS and participation of the delegation of the Uzbekistan were discussed. During conversations with the ICBA Director General, Ismahane Elouafi spoke in favor of continuing partnerships with the IOFS and confirmed the ICBA's intention to obtain observer status in the IOFS.
Within the framework of the Forum, other bilateral discussions took place, during which mutual intentions were expressed to establish partnership relations.
