For the first nine months this year, the volume of industrial production in Uzbekistan increased by five per cent.

Small-scale production is also increasing in the country. Carpet production will be encouraged. The textile industry will be developed with new dynamics. A programme will be launched next year to export industry products worth more than $5 billion.

Raw materials will be provided to manufacturers of household appliances, carpets and furniture to assist enterprises that cannot operate at full capacity. Uzbekistan will deepen reforms in the textile industry to fully reprocess raw cotton domestically and increase the export potential of the country.

Traditionally, cotton has been Uzbekistan's most important cash crop. But in recent years the country has been taking serious steps to develop its textile industry to produce value-added products rather than exporting raw cotton. However, the European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preference Plus is not fully utilised by exporters.

The state provides 70 per cent of transportation costs for the export of fabrics and knitwear to European countries, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco. But Europe still accounts for only six per cent of textiles, three per cent of electrical goods and one per cent of silk and food products exported from Uzbekistan.