Dear participants of the conference!

Dear friends!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Above all, from the bottom of my heart I welcome you – our esteemed guests who arrived in Uzbekistan for today's literature forum from far and near countries.

We consider your participation at this high-profile international conference primarily as a manifestation of deep respect and attention to the people of Uzbekistan, their rich spiritual heritage and contemporary literature.

We highly appreciate the noble activity of each and every one of you as a true friend of Uzbekistan, who sincerely loves our country, who is well acquainted with and widely promotes the Uzbek literature and culture.

Taking this opportunity, I consider it as my honor to express profound gratitude to you for your selfless efforts while no sparing your talent, knowledge and experience in fostering the interest in our national literature in your countries and on the international arena.

Dear participants of the forum!

It is symbolic that the conference dedicated to such an important and relevant topic is being held on the eve of the Independence Day of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

National independence, gained 27 years ago thanks to the firm will and determination of our nation, enabled us to become a full member of the free family of nations of the world, establish fruitful cooperation with the international community in all areas, including in the cultural and humanitarian sphere.

Today, Uzbekistan is entering a qualitatively new stage of its development. We have defined the transition from national revival to national prosperity as our top priority. We do understand that the achievement of this high goal is only possible subject to strengthening of relations of friendship and cooperation with the people of the world, building an open democratic society, yet broader consolidating national and universal human values in our lives.

From this point of view, it is of a great importance to study and widely promote the Uzbek classical and contemporary literature abroad, thoroughly analyze this multifaceted topic in the context of the most important processes taking place today in the world literature, shape scientific and practical conclusions and define corresponding tasks for the future.

In today's turbulent and troubled times, the life itself – as never before – requires an increase in the role and responsibility of artistic words to unite all people with good intentions in order to jointly address extremely complex problems of our time, overcome the global challenges and threats that humanity is now facing, bring up the youth, which makes up almost a third of the world's population based on the high ideas of humanism.

I believe that during conference you will be thoroughly informed about the large-scale work which is now underway in Uzbekistan in this direction, in particular, such priority tasks elevated to the level of state policy as consistent development of science, education and upbringing, culture, art and literature, full support of the scientific and creative intellectuals in a market economy, promoting the culture of reading in society.

Speaking of this, I believe it is appropriate to draw your attention to some important aspects.

Following the deeply thought-out principle of «Friendship of literatures is friendship of people», in Uzbekistan we are paying a profound attention to translation and publication of masterpieces of world classical and contemporary literature in the Uzbek language.

It should be underscored that that the country has a unique creative school of artistic translation. Thousands of works, which are an invaluable asset of universal human culture and integral part of the spiritual world of our readers, were translated into the Uzbek language. 

Along with this, Uzbekistan is carrying out significant work to translate the best examples of our classical and contemporary literature into foreign languages and widely promote them abroad. These works celebrate the harmonious development of individual, a just society, individual freedom, prosperity of Homeland, such wonderful qualities as striving for creativity, kindness and mercy, tolerance and humaneness.

Also of great importance is the fact that in our educational institutions training is conducted in the Karakalpak, Russian, Tajik, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Turkmen languages in addition to the Uzbek language. English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Arabic philology is taught in the institutes of higher learning as a special subject. 

At the same time, we are still to address many urgent and important tasks in this area. Thus, so far, most of the works of foreign literature have been translated into our native language through third languages and this practice still exists today. In addition, despite the fact that our young translators, basically, command the original language well, they sometimes lack artistic skills. The same situation can be observed in the field of translating Uzbek literature into other languages.

I am confident that the international conference on this subject, which is being held in Uzbekistan for the first time with your active participation and assistance, will promote a comprehensive discussion of all these important creative problems, development of practical recommendations on the wider use of international best practices, modern information and communication technologies, Internet capabilities, renewal and strengthening of friendly ties and cooperation between creative associations and literary publications, as well as the establishment of mutual exchange.

We will always do our best to comprehensively and effectively assist you in such an important cause. In particular, the first practical step in this direction could be the establishment with your participation of the Council of Friends of Uzbek Literature Abroad under the Union of Writers of Uzbekistan and organization of its activities on a systematic basis.

Dear friends!

A hundred years ago, the great Uzbek poet Abdulhamid Suleyman Chulpan put forward a fiery motto: «The nation lives as long as literature is alive!»

These wise words, tested by life and history, haven’t lost their meaning and relevance today. Indeed, as long as literature, art and culture are alive, the nations, people and entire humanity as a whole will live and prosper.

I wish you, dear friends, who have dedicated their lives to such noble and glorious cause, a sound health, new creative achievements, happiness and best of luck, as well as successful work to the conference.

  
                                                                                                                                                    Shavkat Mirziyoyev,
                                                                                                                                   President of the Republic of Uzbekistan