He was addressing the Fifth session of Pakistan-Uzbekistan Joint Ministerial Commission which was chaired by Federal Minister for Privatization, Syed Naveed Qamar. The Uzbek Minister said that the sessions of Pak-Uzbek JMC were going on positively, expressing the hope that the current session would result in further boosting trade between the two countries, APP reported.

He was of the view that both the countries were having huge trade and investment potential, which needed to be exploited for the mutual benefit.

Onlinenews.com.pk reported that Ruziev Zafar expressed his satisfaction over the progress being made by both countries for trade and economic cooperation and termed Pakistan an important partner of Uzbekistan in South Asia region. There was a need to accelerate the pace of exploiting available bilateral trade potential of both countries, he added.

“We are working in close relations with Pakistani investors in order to fully utilize the potential areas of trade and investment”, he said.

Zafar Ruziev said that Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani was planning to visit Uzbekistan adding the visit would improve the bilateral relations and trade between the two countries.

On the occasion, Syed Naveed Qamar said that Pakistan and Uzbekistan were enjoying friendly relations. “We want to further deepen the relations by enhancing trade with Uzbekistan”, he added.

He said tourism industry has a big potential where both the countries could jointly work to take benefit of this potential and earn foreign exchange.

Pakistan and Uzbekistan had signed a protocol to cooperate in water, power, agriculture, leather, textile, tourism and pharmaceutical sectors and to enhance bilateral trade between the two countries.

The agreement was signed in Tashkent after the conclusion of 4th session of Pak-Uzbek JMC in April 2009 and in the 5th session the two sides would also review the progress of the agreement.

Syed Naveed Qamar stressed upon the need to further improve the bilateral trade by vigorously involving the private sector and strengthening cooperation between the chambers and industry of the two countries. Agreements on establishing banking channels and liberal visa regimes were imperative to improve bilateral trade and investment and to increase business-to-business contact through the mechanism of Joint Business Council, he added.

The Minister underlined the need for forging cooperation in the field of agriculture, energy, petroleum and natural resources and science and technology and offered Pakistan’s assistance for the development of Uzbek Human Resources for training in various fields.