Baku, Azerbaijan, May 3
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbekistan and Russia are planning to increase the mutual trade turnover to $6 billion in 2018, Uzbek Ambassador to Russia Bakhrom Ashrafkhanov said in an interview to the Russian “Narodnoye Slovo” [Popular Speech] newspaper.
“All our plans for 2018 are based on orders of the Uzbek president. Increasing the mutual trade turnover to $6 billion is among them,” Ashrafkhanov said.
The official also mentioned the development of regional cooperation among the priority directions. According to him, Uzbekistan is planning to organize official visits of regional management to 10 regions of Russia, as well as return visits of delegations of eight Russian regions.
“We also plan to carry on work on development of religious tourism, aimed at visiting holy sites in Uzbekistan, as well as on holding Days of Uzbekistan in Tatarstan Republic,” the ambassador said.
Ashrafkhanov reminded that the visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Russia in March 2017 concluded by the largest number of documents worth some $16 billion being signed. The sides developed roadmaps on realization of the achieved agreements.
“The work on timely and full implementation of measures, provided by the roadmaps, is currently going on,” the ambassador said.
According to him, the trade turnover volume between Uzbekistan and Russia in 2017 reached $5 billion, which is 20 percent more compared to 2016. Russia’s investments to projects in 11 spheres of industry reached $1.63 billion in 2017, which is 26.4 percent more than in 2016. Also, 139 bilateral visits and joint events were held in 2017.
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