Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov held a meeting with Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan).

Belarus and Uzbekistan need to update their cooperation roadmap. This was stated by Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko during a working meeting with Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov, BELTA reports.

“I am glad to meet and talk in detail about the development of our relations. The results of trade and economic cooperation are really quite good; we have exceeded the trade turnover level of US$0.5 billion. There are absolutely all the conditions to double this figure. Mutual trade is balanced: both Belarusian exports to Uzbekistan and supplies from Uzbekistan to Belarus are growing. This is a good trend, which indicates that we have built complementary commodity flows,” said Roman Golovchenko.

He noted that the governments of the two countries face a number of important tasks. “We need to hold a meeting of the intergovernmental commission. This is our main working body, which must develop a new agenda for expanding cooperation. On the Belarusian side, the intergovernmental commission is headed by Leonid Zayats, and he will be responsible for this work,” noted the Prime Minister of Belarus.

The second task is to update the road map for the development of cooperation between Belarus and Uzbekistan for the coming years, to saturate it with new directions. “This includes industrial cooperation, cooperation in agriculture, and in the humanitarian sphere. I propose to develop and consider at a commission meeting a draft of such a document,” noted the head of the government of Belarus.

Belarus and Uzbekistan have great potential for expanding industrial cooperation. This was stated by the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov.

“I am sincerely glad to meet you. For us, Belarus is one of our close and reliable partners. Our cooperation is consistently developing. This is facilitated by an open and trusting dialogue between the heads of our states,” said Abdulla Aripov.

He also mentioned plans to hold a meeting of the intergovernmental commission and the Forum of Regions of Belarus and Uzbekistan.

“We are pleased with the good dynamics of cooperation and believe that there is every opportunity to double the result in trade turnover. It is necessary to use the potential to expand industrial cooperation between our countries,” the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan emphasized.

Holding the Forum of Regions of Belarus and Uzbekistan will contribute to the growth of trade turnover and the implementation of joint projects, noted Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko.

“The task is to hold the Forum of Regions. This is truly a very good and fruitful platform. We have long experience of working in this format with the Russian Federation, the results speak for themselves. Where work is actively going on in the regions, trade turnover is actively growing and joint projects are being implemented in various industries,” said Roman Golovchenko.

The Forum of Regions will be held in Uzbekistan. “We will be waiting for your proposals, how do you see this event being held,” the Prime Minister addressed the Uzbek side, “We are ready to fully engage in this work and saturate the agenda with issues of regional cooperation.”

The topic of the forum on youth policy and education was also discussed. Roman Golovchenko proposed holding it as a separate panel within the Forum of Regions. In addition, holding a medical forum in Minsk was discussed.

The head of the Belarusian government expressed his readiness to develop cooperation with the Uzbek side in various areas. “Belarus is always ready to make its contribution to the development of Uzbekistan where it is in demand. Based on the results of our previous negotiations, concrete results were achieved. We are seeing a serious increase in the supply of agricultural machinery from Belarus to Uzbekistan. The plan for this year is to supply about 4 thousand tractors. We know that there is great demand from farmers in Uzbekistan. We are ready to continue both the assembly production project and the supply of finished equipment,” Roman Golovchenko emphasized.