ASTANA, Kazakhstan, August 7. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan intend to more than double their trade turnover, Kazakh Trade Minister Arman Shakkaliev said, Trend reports via the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan.
He made the remark during a meeting with the Minister of Investment, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan, Laziz Kudratov, in Astana on August 6.
“It's necessary to resolve current trade issues and find new growth points for increasing trade turnover to $5 billion in the near future and to $10 billion in the medium term,” the Kazakh minister explained.
Thus, the main topic of discussion during the meeting was the strengthening of trade and economic cooperation before the upcoming meeting of the heads of the two states, as well as the work of the industrial zone 'ICIC - Central Asia', set up on the Kazakh-Uzbek border, and the transition of Uzbekistan to the Rules for Determining the Country of Origin of 2009.
Kudratov said that Uzbekistan has submitted a notification of accession to the 2009 Rules and plans to complete this process by the end of the year. This step is important to achieve the goal of increasing mutual trade turnover between countries.
One of the most important aspects of strengthening relations between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is cross-border cooperation within the framework of the 'Central Asia' International Center for Industrial Cooperation (ICIC).
During the meeting, the parties shared information about the current state of the industrial zone establishment, saying that the initiators of the project have already been identified as those who will begin its implementation.
The parties agreed to organize a presentation of projects at the industrial zone 'ICIC - Central Asia' in September this year.
To note, Uzbekistan is one of Kazakhstan’s largest trading partners, ranking seventh in 2023 and accounting for more than 57 percent of Kazakhstan’s trade turnover with Central Asia.
In 2023, trade turnover between the countries amounted to $4.4 billion.
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