Seven new Free Economic Zones in pharmacy were created in Uzbekistan, where Indian business could be granted exemption of all taxes and customs duties for a certain number of years, if they would start joint cooperation in producing pharmaceuticals, the country's embassy in New Delhi said.

Speaking about the new investment programme, Uzebekistan Embassy spokesperson said: "We are quite optimistic, and at the first stage of cooperation will only request Indian companies to open their packaging facilities in order to add some value and get benefits of Uzbekistan business environment."

"The maximum demanded level of localization is 36 percent, which could be reached in next 3-4 years, so rest of the semi-ready products could be further continuously imported from their factories in India on duty-free basis," the spokesperson added.

"Since Uzbekistan has a Free Trade Agreements with CIS countries, Georgia and Ukraine, Uzbekistan could jointly enter the dynamically growing market of Central Asia and Afghanistan (with population of 95 million inhabitants) and CIS (with population over 300 million people).," the Embassy spokesperson said.

However the embassy also stated that there is lack of information regarding the opportunities provided to the Indian businesses in the country.

Embassy has conducted a Uzbek-Indian Business Forum on Nov  24 last.

During the event, representatives of Indian business were updated with current economic situation in Uzbekistan, as well as opportunities of doing business.