Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 11
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
On September 11, 2019, Uzbek Commodity Exchange (UZEX), hosted a conference on strengthening mutually beneficial economic relations between representatives of official and business circles of Uzbekistan and Russia, further increasing the volume of exports of goods and services, expanding assortment of export-oriented goods, ensuring the balance of foreign trade and increasing foreign exchange earnings, Trend reports with reference to UZEX.
The event was supported by Trust Bank of Uzbekistan, UZEX and Transcapitalbank (Russia).
The conference was attended by representatives of the private joint-stock bank Trustbank, UZEX, Transcapitalbank, Russian St. Petersburg International Commodity Exchange, the leadership of the Russian Export Center, representatives of ministries and departments of Uzbekistan and entrepreneurs and traders from Uzbekistan and Russia.
The event discussed the tasks set at the first meeting of the Joint Commission of the Heads of Government of Russia and Uzbekistan, held in Urgench (Uzbekistan) on May 30, 2019. Among them are the exports of goods between the two countries, the development of the market for new goods using exchange trading mechanisms.
In accordance with the Memorandum of Cooperation signed between Russia and Uzbekistan, it was noted that a mechanism for settlement transactions was introduced through mutual correspondent accounts of banks for foreign clients engaged in trade.
In particular, Trustbank and Transcapitalbank, with mutual cooperation, created a separate infrastructure and opened additional correspondent accounts for Transcapitalbank in US dollars, euros, and Russian rubles for UZEX.
This mechanism has already begun to be used not only by Russian entrepreneurs, but also by representatives of the business community of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. In the short period since the launch of the project, foreign exchange earnings worth about $2 million have already been received by UZEX under 7 listed contracts for the supply of polyethylene and liquefied gas.
It was also noted that the toolkit for inter-bank cooperation will encourage entrepreneurs in Russia and Uzbekistan to more actively use the exchange mechanism in carrying out foreign trade operations.
The conference highlighted the measures to create favorable conditions for supporting the foreign trade activities of entrepreneurs of the two countries by lending guarantee funds, which are made when participating in exchange trading. The issues of increasing the competitiveness of domestic producers, attracting foreign investment and improving the business climate in Uzbekistan were separately discussed.
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