First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Sergey Ivanov and Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoev – the co-chairmen of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Uzbekistan took part in the event. According to the agenda, a plenary joint meeting of the Russian-Uzbek and Uzbek-Russian Business Councils, a conference on the development of the inter-regional economic and humanitarian cooperation between Uzbekistan and Russia, roundtable meetings and seminars, as well as the presentations of the representatives of the Russian Federation and individual companies, as well as an exchange of business contacts were conducted.

"Our countries and nations are bound by strong friendship, partnership and cooperation ties. Over the last several years the relations between our countries progressed to a quality new level, based on trust between our countries. The meetings being held these days within the frame of the exhibition and the economic forum are an important step in strengthening the long-term mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries," the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoev said in his speech at the opening ceremony.

Today the Russian Federation is an important trade and economic partner of the Republic of Uzbekistan. It accounts for nearly 29.2% of the total volume of Uzbekistan’s foreign trade. A fast increase in the volume of bilateral trade has been observed for the past few years. Last year the indicator passed the mark of US$3 billion for the first time. The number of the joint projects being implemented in the priority fields of economic cooperation is increasing at a high rate.

"Within the frame of today’s forum we need to agree on and discuss further steps to raise the potential of the economic ties in the field of trade and investments, and the development of interregional cooperation. The richest natural resources and production potential, as well as unique agricultural resources – all this creates the preconditions for the gradual development of this country’s national economy. Uzbekistan is ahead of many CIS countries according to its macroeconomic indicators. It confidently follows the path of reforms aimed at further liberalization of the economy and attraction of foreign investments," First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Sergey Ivanov said.

This year is marked by active development of the institutional foundation for the bilateral trade and economic cooperation and the adoption of priority bilateral documents in priority areas of interaction. In March 2007, Moscow hosted the 9th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation between the two countries. During the visit of the Chairman of the Russian Government M. Fradkov to Uzbekistan in March this year the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Establishment and Activity of the UzRosAvia Uzbek-Russian JV LLC was signed.

In May 2007 Tashkent hosted a large joint business forum organized by the Ministry of Foreign Economic Affairs, Investments and Trade and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in cooperation with the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Federal Agency for Industry and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of the Russian Federation. A delegation representing the business community of Russia headed by the Director of the Federal Agency for Industry, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Part of the Intergovernmental Committee B. Aleshin participated in the event. The parties exchanged opinions and discussed the urgent issues concerning cooperation in trade and economic sphere.

In July this year, a governmental delegation of the Russian Federation headed by the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of Russia, Chairman of the Russian division of the Intergovernmental Commission Sergey Ivanov visited Uzbekistan. Upon the results of the visit the parties signed bilateral agreements regulating the relations in the sphere of migration: on labour activity and protection of the rights of labour-migrants, citizens of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Uzbekistan and labour-migrants, citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the Russian Federation; on cooperation in the fight against illegal migration; and on readmission. Also principle agreements were reached on the expansion of cooperation in the spheres of aviation, trade, science and technology.

Cooperation is being expanded with the Russian Federation within the frame of the main regional economic associations, such as EurAsEC, CIS and SCO.

Trade relations with Russia are now regulated by the Agreement on Trade Relations between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation of 13 November 1992 and the Protocol on introduction of amendments and additions to the Protocol on waivers from the general regime on free trade to the said agreement signed as of 13 January 1993.

According to the 2006 results, Russia’s share in the total volume of Uzbekistan’s foreign trade made up 29.2% against 21.6% in 2005. The volume of bilateral trade grew by 42% to US$3.118 billion thereby reaching the maximum indicator throughout the history of countries’ economic cooperation. An important feature of the trade operations was the balance of trade surplus of US$784.8 million.

Stably positive dynamics towards growth in the volume of bilateral trade was kept in 2007 too. In January-September this year the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries grew by 45.5% year on year to US$2.95 billion.

The expansion of the investment cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation is one of the priority direction in bilateral economic relations of the countries. The engine in this investment cooperation is the oil and gas sector. An important event in the first half of this year in this sector was the signing of the joint Declaration on the development of gas transportation capacity in Central Asian region by the presidents of Uzbekistan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on 12 May. The document envisages the increase in the carrying capacity of the gas supply system passing, particularly through the territory of Uzbekistan. In particular, GazProm is taking measures within the drame of the investment project on the supplementary exploration of the Shahpahta field in Ust-Yurt region on the conditions of the product sharing agreement of 14 April 2004.

In partnership with LUKOIL an investment project is being implemented on the development of fields of the Kandym group, Khauzak, Shady and the geological surveying on the conditions of the product sharing agreement of 16 June 2004. Together with the SoyuzNefteGaz projects are being implemented on the fields of Southern Kyzylbayrak and Koshkuduk. On 23 January 2007 a Product Sharing Agreement was signed between the Republic of Uzbekistan and SoyuzNefteGaz Vostok Limited. For the purpose of conducting oil and gas operations, according to the agreement, a new operator CIS Gissar Operating LLC was set up. Together with the Zorubejneftegaz (Foreign Oil and Gas) Open Joint-Stock Company the issue concerning the servicing works to increase the oil recovery of layers in the fields of Bukhara-Khiva oil and gas province is being worked on.

Substantial progress was achieved in the sphere of aircraft building. Within the frame of M. Fradkov’s visit to Uzbekistan in March 2007 an Agreement was signed between the Government of Uzbekistan and the Government of Russia on the creation of joint Uzbek-Russian enterprise, UzRosAvia, which is to specialize in the repair of helicopters.

At this time more than 650 enterprises fully or partially based on Russian capital operate on the territory of Uzbekistan. Total Russian investments into the charter capitals of these companies comprise US$800 million. Also, 145 Russian firms and companies are accredited in the country. In 2006 the volume of direct Russian investments totaled US$357.9 million, which exceeds the indicators of the year 2005 2.6 times.

Source: UzReport.com