On September 8 of this year, the First Uzbek-Israeli Academic Forum was held at the «Silk Road» International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage.

The forum was attended by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Rector of the “Silk Road”  International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage - Aziz Abdukhakimov, Rector of Samarkand State University, member of the Senate of the Republic of Uzbekistan Prof.Rustam Kholmuradov, Ambassador of Israel to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan Ms. Ben-Hillel Zehavit, Rector of Holon Technological University Prof.Eduard Yakubov, as well as professors of Holon University.

This forum was officially opened with an introductory speech by Aziz Abduhakhimov, who stressed the importance of future cooperation with Israeli universities, including Holon Technological University. The Rector paid special attention to increasing the pace of development of partnership relations in the field of education between Israel and Higher education institutions of Uzbekistan, where an important aspect is the exchange of students, as well as work on joint educational programs and research projects. In addition, Aziz Abdukhakimov spoke about the reforms in the tourism sector in Uzbekistan and about the large-scale work carried out on the eve of the SCO summit to reflect the spirit of Samarkand, under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

In his speech, the rector of the Holon Technological University, Prof.Eduard Yakubov thanked all the forum participants present, and also noted that in accordance with the mutual desire of the peoples of Israel and Uzbekistan to develop educational cooperation as a basis for training highly qualified personnel for foreign economic relations of the two countries, having common priorities in the field of tourism development and scientific research.

The forum program is dedicated to the first Israeli-Uzbek Academic Forum and Disciplines (STEM)2: Cultural heritage and tourism, innovative technologies, information, computer and museum technologies.

The purpose of this forum is to bring together high-ranking representatives of the academy, industry and society from Israel, the UAE and Central Asian countries together with high-ranking Uzbek representatives in the field of innovation, academy, industry, health and environmental systems, and tourism heritage.

The conference participants strive to promote cooperation and practical progress, as well as to share new trends in such fields as science and technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analysis, as well as other deep learning disciplines based on applied mathematics, digital medical technologies, cultural heritage and tourism technologies, educational e-learning technologies and many other things.

It is important that the first Uzbek-Israeli academic forum has already been held in Tashkent and Bukhara.

* STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)