Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 18
By Fikret Dolukhanov, Ilkin Shafiyev – Trend:
The Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ) of Belarus is negotiating with Uzbekistan's largest manufacturer of special equipment Krantas LLC to create joint assembly facilities in Uzbekistan, a source in the Belarusian company told Trend on Sept. 18.
According to the representative of MAZ, the sides plan to create joint venture on the basis of the Krantas plant, where special equipment will be produced on the chassis of the Belarusian production.
The source also said that the produced equipment will be both sold at the domestic market and exported to the countries of Central Asia, especially to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The representative of the company, however, did not reveal the planned volumes of production and exports, citing the fact that this issue is still under discussion.
Deputy Director of the MAZ-Tashkent trading house Golibjon Hasanov earlier told Uzbek media that a joint venture for the assembly of Belarusian trucks in Uzbekistan will be established in line with Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s order.
"This will help increasing trade turnover between the two countries, as well as starting to export our products to such countries as Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. The terms of the contract and its specific details are under discussion now," Hasanov said.
In 1H2018, the Belarusian plant delivered to Uzbekistan the products worth $1.4 million. It is planned that during the exhibition entitled as “Made in Belarus”, which will end on September 19, the additional contracts worth $2.5 million will be signed. As a result, 50 units of equipment will be delivered to Uzbekistan by the end of 2018.
At the exhibition, the Minsk Automobile Plant presented a variety of equipment for construction work, including a crane for implementation of loading and unloading, construction and installation work and dump semi-trailer trucks for transportation of bulk cargo. In addition, the low-floor passenger bus MAZ-206 is also presented the guests of the exhibition.
In February of this year, the "Toshshakhartranskhizmat" Association of Tashkent Urban Transport Services began pilot operation of two low-floor buses of MAZ brand, one being of large passenger capacity, another – of medium passenger capacity.
The buses are equipped with an engine running on compressed natural gas (methane), corresponding to the environmental standard Euro-5, which can significantly improve the level of purity of ecology by reducing the amount of toxic emissions from fuel combustion.
---
Follow the authors on Twitter: @FDolukhanov, @IlkinShafiyev