From March 15 to 16, a 21-member delegation of government and business representatives, led by Normat Tursunov, Governor of the Navoi Region of Uzbekistan, visited Ningxia. H.E. Farhod Arziev, Ambassador of Uzbekistan to China, accompanied the visit. Li Yifei, Secretary of the CPC Ningxia Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ningxia People’s Congress, met with the delegation on the afternoon of March 16. The two sides held in-depth dialogues on strengthening cooperation in areas including ecological governance, personnel training, poverty alleviation, and people-to-people exchanges, reaching preliminary consensus.

During the visit, the two sides held the Matchmaking Meeting between the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China and the Navoi Region of Uzbekistan. Participants engaged in face-to-face exchanges on projects, cooperation, and development, laying a solid foundation for collaboration on different levels and in different fields between the two regions. Wang Li, Vice Governor of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, attended the meeting and delivered remarks.

Over 50 representatives from government departments and enterprises on both sides gathered at the meeting. They introduced their respective resource endowments, specialty industries, investment policies, and business environments, holding in-depth discussions on practical cooperation in fields including desertification control, ecological restoration, trade and investment, modern agriculture, energy and minerals, and technology and talent. Under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the two sides agreed to vigorously carry forward the China-Central Asia Spirit. Taking this event as a starting point, they will formulate lists of cooperation projects, establish liaison mechanisms, and work together to ensure the implementation of various cooperative endeavors.

During their stay in Ningxia, Governor Tursunov and Ambassador Arziev visited the China-Central Asia Cooperation Center for Combating Desertification and the Baijitan National Nature Reserve. They spoke highly of Ningxia’s remarkable achievements in realizing “green development and economic prosperity thriving together” through sand prevention, control, and utilization. They noted that the practical experience and successful models explored by Ningxia through generations of arduous efforts have set a “Ningxia model” and contributed a “Chinese solution” for global desertification control. Currently, the Navoi Region is making every effort to build Uzbekistan’s sole national desertification control demonstration project. They expressed a readiness to deepen mutual learning with Ningxia and replicate its “six-in-one” model—an integrated development model featuring frontline sand-fixing shrub forests, arbor-shrub mixed forests near residential areas, economic fruit forests, livestock breeding, crop cultivation, and ecotourism—thereby strengthening the bonds of friendship between the two countries through ecological cooperation.

This year marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) and the Year of High-Quality Development of China-Central Asia Cooperation. The Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office will continue to leverage its resources and coordination capabilities to build cooperation platforms and pool joint efforts. It is committed to driving the “China-Central Asia Cooperation Center for Combating Desertification Plus” initiative to deliver solid and fruitful results, contributing Ningxia’s strengths to building a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.