On December 4, a meeting was held in Tashkent between the Uzbek Deputy PM/Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Sardor Umurzakov with Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov.
The parties underscored that it was important to support at the government level the interest of the businesses of the two countries in establishing and developing business partnerships. In 8 months of this year, 240 Uzbek-Russian joint ventures were established, with the total number of the Russia-invested companies in Uzbekistan doubling over the past three years, surpassing 2,000 enterprises.
They also discussed joint measures to expand the two-way trade between the two countries to US$ 10 billion in the near future. Specific proposals were made to remove the existing barriers for trade and optimize the conditions for foreign trade operations for Uzbek and Russian companies.
Last year, the bilateral trade between Uzbekistan and Russia increased by 15% to US$ 6.6 billion (an increase of 58% in three years). In 10 months of this year, despite the pandemic, trade between the two countries grew by 18 percent.
The parties exchanged views on key items on the agenda and expressed mutual commitment to expanding multifaceted cooperation in industry, agriculture, transport, energy, health, banking and finance, education.
They expressed interest in joint implementation of projects by Russian companies in the oil and gas sector, agriculture, electrical engineering and other areas.
At the end of the roundtable, a signing ceremony of bilateral accords was held. The memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and in the field of industry, foreign trade and investment cooperation, as well as action plan for the organization and holding of the “Innoprom In Uzbekistan” industrial exhibition in April 2021 was signed.
