Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will form a joint working group to eliminate obstacles in mutual trade. The Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev and the Minister of Investments, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan Laziz Kudratov agreed on this on January 5 in Tashkent.
The ministers discussed the ongoing work on the “roadmap” of the investment agreements and trade agreements signed within the framework of the visit of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, prospects for further development of trade-economic and industrial cooperation, and current issues of implementation of current projects.
Over the past 6 years, the volume of trade has increased almost 2.5 times, from $1.9 billion in 2016 to $4.6 billion in 2023.
The parties also agreed on a number of measures to increase the volume of trade to 10 billion dollars in the coming years.
Through the joint foreign trade company UzKazTrade, it is planned to create an online trading platform for the sale of a wide range of goods in the markets of the two countries.
In addition, the ministers exchanged constructive views on the development of industrial cooperation, taking into account the practical aspects of the establishment of the international center of industrial cooperation “Central Asia”. Today, infrastructure creation and connection to it is being done.
Earlier, it was reported that this facility is located near the checkpoints “Atameken” and “Guliston”, and includes production sites, warehouses for storing goods and equipment, as well as transport infrastructure. This speeds up the delivery of goods and reduces logistics costs.
The center will enable the promotion of new productions, jobs, processing of agricultural and industrial products, as well as the provision of logistics services for the future transportation of goods.
In March 2023, UzTrade and KazTrade established the UzKazTrade joint company for the supply of fruits and vegetables from Uzbekistan and flour from Kazakhstan. After some time, it became known that UzKazTrade plans to wholesale fruits and vegetables from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan without a commercial margin.
