Turin-Uzbekistan axis: new perspectives for automotive and industry

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - To create a bridge between Europe and Asia, a collaboration in the economic and industrial field that places the automotive sector at the centre. This is the focus of the recent visit to Turin of a delegation from Uzbekistan, a visit that followed the institutional mission last January that brought to Tashkent, the country's capital, the mayor of Turin Stefano Lo Russo, the rector of the Polytechnic Stefano Corgnati, the president of the Turin Chamber of Commerce Dario Gallina, the president of the Unione Industriali Torino Marco Gay and the president of the Iren group Luca Dal Fabbro. A relationship, the one between Turin and Uzbekistan, which began in 2009 when the Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent was founded, a campus with 1,500 students resulting from the collaboration between the Politecnico di Torino, UzAuto, General Motors and the Uzbek Ministry of University. The Uzbek delegation's trip to Piedmont, which took place on 23 May, was therefore an opportunity to analyse possible ccollaborations that could involve the supply chain and the entire automotive development and production sector in the Turin area.

Uzbekistan, in fact, targets the ambitious goal of producing one million vehicles by 2030, as well as having the potential to produce another million cars for export, thanks to its low-tax economic zones. "Turin is unique for its ability to have different souls that bring together the manufacturing vocation, which is an integral part of its history and its present, a look to the future, as a place of innovation and a model for the ecological transition, and an increasingly strong attractiveness as a university city," commentedTurin's mayor, Stefano Lo Russo. Within this framework is the commitment to the internationalisation and promotion of the city together with other institutions in the area, with numerous institutional missions abroad to make Torino known and establish new synergies in the fields of industry, university, trade and tourism'.

Also supporting this partnership is Uzbekistan's solid economic momentum, with average annual GDP growth of 7%, coupled with a 24% increase in foreign investment in 2023. In this context, UzAuto Motors, the Uzbek government's car manufacturer and partner of Chevrolet, employs about 16,000 people in three plants producing half a million vehicles, of which about 400,000 are absorbed by the domestic market. This is also thanks to the contribution of 150 foreign suppliers, who supply 3,500 components out of the 7,500 needed to assemble a car of the Uzbek group. The remainder is produced in the Asian country, which benefits from partnerships with the Turin and Milan Polytechnics as well as Istanbul University. Both Italdesign and TorinoDesign as well as Cim 4.0 are stable partners of the UzAuto group.

'Here in Turin, I say this with great pride, we have an extraordinary capacity in automotive knowledge and doing. We are confident that this is an excellent first step to share how working together as a system can bring good results,' commented the president of Unione Industriali Torino, Marco Gay. The Piedmontese capital is a partner of excellence for the development and production of automotive components and, therefore, a crucial partner for reaching the million-vehicle target. In Piedmont, in fact, there are 713 automotive companies with a total of 55,600 employees, generating 45% of the sector's national revenues. At the same time, Piedmont is the first region in Italy for private investment in research and development, has three public business incubators seven innovation clusters and the first cluster dedicated to hydrogen mobility, the H2Ice.

"Torino, today, is a laboratory where the future is being experimented: in digital transition, in sustainable innovation, in culture as a lever of development," highlighted Mayor Lo Russo, emphasising how the city has, in recent years, "strengthened its international credibility, fuelled by a systemic and synergic work that has seen institutions, universities, businesses, the world of commerce and culture act according to a shared trajectory. Missions abroad, such as those to Doha in Qatar, Tashkent in Uzbekistan and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia "have been opportunities to promote a territory in which ideas find space to become businesses, to weave new strategic alliances and to tell the story of Turin as the European capital of innovation. Objectives that will also drive the next international missions already planned, in Argentina and Azerbaijan,' the mayor revealed.