Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 5 May, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev received the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, who is in our country to participate in the next meeting of the joint Intergovernmental Commission.

Issues of further deepening the Uzbek-Kazakh relations of strategic partnership and alliance, expanding multifaceted cooperation were considered.

At the beginning of the conversation, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov conveyed the sincere greetings and best wishes of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the head of our state

During the meeting, the dynamic development of bilateral relations was noted with satisfaction. In 2022, trade increased by 18 percent, and by 12 percent since the beginning of this year. There are more than 3 thousand joint ventures. The volume of cargo transportation is increasing. Active humanitarian exchanges continue.

The President of Uzbekistan highly appreciated the fruitful results of the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission, primarily the agreements reached to promote priority economic projects, including the creation of the International Center for Industrial Cooperation.

Particular attention was paid to increasing trade and balancing the performance of export-import transactions in order to achieve the target of US$10 billion in the coming years. For these purposes, the importance of launching the activities of a foreign trade company as soon as possible was noted.

In addition, expansion of the portfolio of investment projects in such areas as mechanical engineering, energy, mining, transport and logistics, textile, food and other industries has been identified as a priority task.