Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The ninth meeting of the Uzbek-Georgian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation was held in Tashkent under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev and Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Levan Davitashvili. 

It was attended by representatives of relevant ministries and departments, as well as the business community of the two countries.

During the meeting, issues of further development of cooperation in the investment, industrial, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres were discussed.

Within the framework of the intergovernmental dialogue, a positive trend in the growth of trade turnover was noted. Over the past 6 years, foreign trade between the two countries has almost doubled. Last year alone, trade between Uzbekistan and Georgia increased by more than 30%. The parties agreed to jointly increase the trade turnover to US$500 million in the coming years. To achieve this goal, it was proposed to develop and approve within two weeks a Plan of practical measures to further deepen trade and economic cooperation for 2023-2024, with the inclusion of measures to organize mutual trade missions, as well as exhibitions of the industrial potential of the two countries.

Speaking about the strengthening of interregional partnership, special emphasis is placed on the development of ties with the involvement of all absolutely regions of Georgia and Uzbekistan in joint projects and initiatives. In this regard, it was proposed to establish at the first stage bilateral partnerships between Samarkand and Batumi, as well as Bukhara and Mtskheta.

The parties noted the relevance of establishing industrial cooperation, in the context of which the potential for the implementation of joint projects in the production of advanced pharmaceuticals, finished agricultural products, mineral fertilizers, as well as the creation of clusters for the production of alcoholic beverages was considered.

The parties paid special attention to the development of transport and logistics partnership, in particular, the expansion of the use of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars transport corridor and the developed Black Sea port infrastructure of Georgia.

As a result of the event, a number of bilateral documents were signed, including the Final Protocol of the meeting, the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Government of Georgia on cooperation in the field of technical regulation, standardization, metrology and conformity assessment, as well as the Protocol on completion of bilateral negotiations on access to the market of goods and services between Georgia and the Republic of Uzbekistan within the framework of the accession of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the World Trade Organization (WTO).