Neville Isdell, a senior vice president of the U.S.-based group, told a news conference the new plant marked the beginning of the firm's push into this former Soviet republic of 22 million people.
The new company, Coca-Cola Bottlers Tashkent Ltd, is capitalized at $5.5 million with equal investments from The Coca-Cola Co. of the United States, the U.S-based Roz Trading Ltd and Uzpishprom, an Uzbek state enterprise.
"Very clearly we are in a situation here where the climate for investment is very rapidly improving," Isdell said. "This means that this is really the first step along the road. We'll see further steps."
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