Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.23
By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will increase the number of jointly produced passenger cars to 7,000, Kazakh media reported referring to Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Uzbekistan Yerik Utembayev.
"We consider partnership with GM Motors Uzbekistan as a long-term and strategic project, and an agreement has been reached to assemble cars up to 7,000 units a year," Utembayev said during a visit to the largest machine-building plant in Andijan.
He further noted that the sides also plan to establish production of agricultural machinery and buses. The envoy said that an agreement had already been reached with the Samarkand automobile manufacturer, which produces buses of the Isuzu brand.
In the near future, these buses are planned to be launched along the Tashkent-Shymkent route, and further to organize their joint assembly in Kazakhstan.
Utembayev noted that Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are planning to create a joint large cluster for production of cars and spare parts.
Last year, Uzavtosanoat and Kazakhstan's Allure Group of Companies signed a memorandum on mutual cooperation. Within the framework of the memorandum, the companies intend to expand and strengthen mutually beneficial economic cooperation.
The parties will develop a long-term cooperation strategy for increasing sales and occupying the dominant market share in Kazakhstan.
Previously, a special roadmap has been developed between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Last year, the two sides signed 170 agreements. Furthermore, the parties intend to link the border zones in the southern part of Kazakhstan and Tashkent, as well as Andijan with Almaty.
In 2017, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to more than $ 2 billion. Astana and Tashkent set the task to increase the volume of mutual trade by 2020 to $ 5 billion.