About 500 Uzbek and Belarusian business executives, officials of ministries and departments attended the Uzbekistan-Belarus business forum and the matchmaking session, the Ministry of Foreign Trade told the Tashkent Times.
The events took place on Wednesday in Tashkent on the margins of the official visit of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to Uzbekistan and were co-organized by the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Trade and the chambers of commerce of the two countries.
The forum was opened by the co-chairmen of the Uzbek-Belarusian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation - Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Nodir Otajonov and Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Rusy.
Minister of Foreign Trade Jamshid Khodjaev outlined promising areas of bilateral cooperation, namely, light industry, electrical, agricultural, mining, engineering and food sectors, as well as of building material joint ventures.
Within the forum, the sides signed US$ 193.3 million worth of 82 export-import contracts and reached agreements on projects totaling US$ 38 million. In the coming years, it is planned to implement about 20 investment projects.
Cooperation agreements between the chambers of commerce and industry of Tashkent and Minsk, as well as Tashkent and Gomel provinces were signed, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan Adham Ikramov said.
The sides expressed interest in enhancing cooperation between standardization bodies, sharing experience in the application of world standards, accrediting laboratories in international certification bodies, and setting up of a training system.
