By Tugcenur Yilmaz and Zuhal Demirci

ANKARA

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has implemented hundreds of projects in Uzbekistan since 1993 in the areas of health, education, agriculture, livestock, and infrastructure.

In the first quarter of this year, the number of projects by TIKA in Uzbekistan reached 725, according to a statement from the Turkish aid agency.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will leave for Uzbekistan on an official visit on Sunday.

Earlier, Erdogan and his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed an agreement to double TIKA projects in Uzbekistan.

In 2018, TIKA will provide 50 ambulances to Uzbekistan, the largest country in Central Asia with a 32-million population. The ambulances will support effective health and emergency services in the country, said the statement.

With TIKA's coordination, Turkish and Uzbek Health Ministries are jointly providing health trainings in the fields of cardiology, orthopedics, otorhinolaryngology, pediatrics, gynecology, urology, general and plastic surgery from April 26 to May 6.

In the scope of this training, nearly 180 operations will be conducted as 1,200 patients will be treated and 400 medical personnel will be trained.

Separately, the aid agency aims to restore and equip a total of 23 pre-schools by the end of 2018.

Since 2011, Turkey also trained nearly 600 Uzbek security personnel through police training cooperation programs in both Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Eleven people from Uzbekistan were also trained in Anadolu Agency's War Journalism Training and TRT General Directorate's sound, light, filming, montage and production training programs held jointly with TIKA.