TASHKENT, Oct 10: Uzbekistan foresees investment of $1.5 billion in its textiles sector over the next three years as it tries to add value to its cotton output, a senior Uzbek official said on Monday.

The Central Asian country, currently the world’s sixth largest cotton producer and second largest exporter, has earmarked 100 projects that will boost textile production, said Rustam Azimov, minister for foreign economic relations.

“In 2008 we will be processing 51 per cent of the cotton fibre produced inside the country,” Azimov told a cotton trade fair in Tashkent.

This year Uzbekistan plans to export 860,000 tons of cotton fibre. But in three years’ time, growth in textile production will mean raw cotton exports dropping to 530,000 tonnes, Azimov said.

The planned investment in textile production would create an additional 300,000 jobs and bring an additional 500 million dollars to the annual state budget, he said.—AFP