Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 24 February, as part of the visit of the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a meeting was held between Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Laziz Kudratov and Minister of Finance of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Ishaq Dar in Tashkent in a narrow format.

During the talks, prospects for the development of bilateral cooperation in such priority areas as transport and logistics, the growth of mutual trade, investment and industrial cooperation and banking were discussed.

Further measures to increase the volume of Uzbek-Pakistani trade turnover, which reached $240 million in 2022, were considered. The parties mutually supported the adoption of concrete measures to accelerate the practical implementation of the Agreement on Preferential Trade and Diversification of Transport Corridors in order to create prerequisites for increasing the volume of mutual trade.

At the meeting, an agreement was reached to accelerate the progress of the trans-Afghan railway construction project. Among other agreed measures are an increase in the volume of multimodal cargo transportation, creation of terminals on the territories of both states for further joint export of products to the markets of third countries.

The possibilities of expanding interbank partnership were also discussed. An agreement was reached to take measures to implement the mechanism of SWAP operations between central banks, the development of correspondent banking relations between the financial institutions of the two countries.

Following the meeting, the parties expressed firm mutual commitment to further deepening and expanding cooperation in all areas of bilateral partnership discussed.