Uzbekistan, Malaysia discuss bilateral cooperation in field of transport 

During the meeting, the Malaysian side was provided with detailed information on the extensive work being done to develop transport and transport communications in our country in recent years, ensuring a high level of transportation safety, improving the management system in the transport sector, large-scale measures aimed at training qualified specialists for the industry, as well as improving the transport and logistics system in order to increase the country’s export potential.

Loke Siew Fook highly appreciated the reforms carried out by the government of Uzbekistan in the field of transport, major projects in this direction, in particular the “Uzbekistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan” highway and the creation of an international transport corridor for access to the ports of the Indian Ocean through these two countries.

The Minister of Transport expressed his readiness to exchange experience with the relevant departments of Uzbekistan in this direction, taking into account the best practices of Malaysia in managing public transport.

During the meeting, prospects for mutual cooperation in the field of transport between Uzbekistan and Malaysia were also discussed. In particular, an exchange of views took place on the development of cooperation in air and rail traffic.

In particular, Loke Siew Fook welcomed the flights that are planned to be carried out three times a week on the route “Kuala Lumpur – Tashkent – Kuala Lumpur” by the Malaysian airline Batik Air from November this year. In his opinion, these new flights will serve to further expand cooperation in trade, economy, investment and tourism between the two countries.

The Minister of Transport also noted the activities carried out by the working group to study the corridors connecting the two countries by rail, and expressed the expediency of accelerating mutual cooperation in this direction.

It should be recalled that in March of this year, a working group was formed to study the railway corridors of the two countries. Measures to be implemented for the study and use of the route Tashkent – Shymkent (Kazakhstan) – Urumqi – Xi’an – Chongqing – Kunming (China) – Laos – Thailand – Perlis – Klang (Malaysia) were identified.

Loke Siew Fook noted that this route, which connects the two countries by rail, is the only transport corridor, and stressed that this route can become a logistics hub for Uzbek products to enter the Southeast Asian market in Malaysia. 

Following the meeting, agreements were reached on acceleration of negotiations between Batik Air and Uzbekistan Airports JSC and the start of flights of the Malaysian airline to Uzbekistan from November of this year, organization of a trip of specialists from JSC "Uzbek Railways" to Kuala Lumpur to discuss issues of cooperation with the leadership of the Malaysian railway operator, as well as the visit of experts from the Ministry of Transport of Uzbekistan to study the best practices of Malaysia in the management of public transport.