Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan plan to bring trade turnover to $ 1 billion. The Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan provides such data.
Over the past three years, trade between the two countries has grown almost fivefold — to $ 818.4 million at the end of 2019. Now it needs to be increased in order to overcome the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is reported that the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov and the Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Erkin Asrandiev in the format of a video conference discussed the prospects for expanding investment, trade, transport and logistics partnership between the two states. The parties also agreed to jointly develop and approve a «road map» to expand and deepen cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of industrial cooperation and begin its practical implementation, the ministry stresses.
The meeting participants also welcomed the launch of multimodal transportation along the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China corridor using vehicles on Andijan — Osh — Irkeshtam — Kashgar section. This made it possible to significantly optimize the transport costs of carriers.
At the end of last year, the volume of rail freight traffic between the two countries increased by 10.7 percent and amounted to 1.47 million tons, road — by 38.2 percent — to 1.49 million tons.
The parties noted the need to expand the capacity of roads at border checkpoints and improve conditions for the transit of passengers, vehicles and cargo, including through the digitalization of customs, sanitary, transport and border control processes. In this vein, the possibilities of creating joint logistics hubs for the organization of combined freight transport will also be studied.
Sardor Umurzakov and Erkin Asrandiev during the conference also worked out the issues of holding the next meeting of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation. An agreement was reached on the introduction of mechanisms for accelerated coordination of investment, trade, transport and logistics partnership at the level of the heads of the relevant ministries and departments of the two states.
