Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - On 8 March, negotiations between the Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov and the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov took place on the Uzbek-Kazakh border on the territory of the border post “Gisht Kuprik - Jibek Joli”.

During the negotiations, issues of current trade and economic cooperation and possible mechanisms for its intensification were discussed. At the same time, current progress in this direction was noted - at the end of 2019, trade turnover grew by 14% and exceeded the mark of US$3 billion.

In this context, they considered the implementation of practical actions to radically increase the volume of mutual trade with Kazakhstan, ensuring the balance of commodity flows, in terms of issues that require joint action by the involved ministries and departments of both countries.

Concrete proposals were voiced to expand the range and volume of goods, including through reciprocal deliveries of competitive products of Uzbek and Kazakhstan production, which will be worked out in detail during a meeting of the Uzbek-Kazakh interdepartmental working group on mutual increase in trade turnover in April 2020. The presidents of the two countries set the priority task of bringing the volume of annual commodity circulation to US$5 billion in the near future, and to US$10 billion in the next 2-3 years.

Particular attention during the dialogue was paid to issues of comprehensive support for mutual trade, which included measures to simplify and harmonize customs norms and standards, integrate customs information systems, implement the program for the construction of modern logistics centers, reconstruct and modernize border crossings, which will allow significantly reduce time and material costs in the implementation of deliveries and freight.