Samarkand to host Asian Development Bank meeting

Uzbekistan will chair the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for 2025–2026, and the Bank’s Annual Meeting will be held in May 2026 in the city of Samarkand. This was announced today, 18 November, during President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s meeting with an ADB delegation led by the Bank’s President, Masatsugu Kanda.

At the beginning of the meeting, the ADB President congratulated Uzbekistan’s leader on the 30th anniversary of the strategic partnership and on Uzbekistan assuming the chairmanship of the ADB Board of Governors for 2025–2026. The sides discussed ways to further expand large-scale cooperation within the framework of the country’s socio-economic reform program.

It was noted that Uzbekistan remains one of the Bank’s largest partners in the region, with a joint project portfolio exceeding $15 billion. In addition, projects worth over $3 billion are being developed in such areas as green energy, transport, digital transformation, education, and others. Non-sovereign financing mechanisms are also being actively introduced.

Special attention was given to preparations for the ADB Board of Governors’ Annual Meeting, which will be held in May 2026 in Samarkand. President Mirziyoyev proposed signing an Expanded Strategic Partnership Program with the ADB during the upcoming event, with a particular focus on infrastructure development, training of technical and engineering specialists, new skills programs for women and youth, poverty reduction, and the development of the mortgage market and private sector.

The importance of the ADB’s active participation in supporting major national and regional initiatives, as well as in advancing transport, energy, and trade projects in Central Asia, was also emphasized.

ADB President Masatsugu Kanda praised the wide-ranging reforms implemented in Uzbekistan and expressed the Bank’s readiness to fully support the continuation of the country’s irreversible reform agenda under the “New Uzbekistan” program.

It is worth noting that, on 6–7 May 2025, the 58th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors was held in Milan, Italy, where the Uzbekistan delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khojayev, participated. During the meeting, it was officially announced that Uzbekistan will chair the ADB Board of Governors for 2025–2026, with Jamshid Khojayev confirmed as the Board Chairman. The meeting also decided that the 59th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors will be held in May 2026 in Samarkand.