A meeting of the joint commission was held in Tashkent with the participation of the heads of government of Russia and Uzbekistan, Mikhail Mishustin and Abdulla Aripov, the press service of the Russian Cabinet of Ministers reported.
During the meeting, the parties discussed specific measures to implement the agreements reached following negotiations between the heads of the two states during the state visit of the Russian President. Vladimir Putin to Uzbekistan and also agreed on promising areas of bilateral cooperation.
“This year has been very fruitful for us. A number of joint events of political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian nature were held. Contacts at the governmental level are highly intense. Our ministries and departments actively interact. Visits are organised at the regional level.” – said Abdulla Aripov.
He stressed that Russia remains a key foreign economic partner and one of the largest investment partners of Uzbekistan, recalling that over the past seven years the trade turnover of the two countries has increased 2.5 times. By the end of 2023, it will exceed $10 billion.
“According to our data, trade turnover increased by another 30% in seven months of this year. The main thing is that the structure of mutual offers is qualitatively changing. First of all, in products with high added value. The Heads of State have set us a new goal: to increase the volume of mutual trade to 30 billion dollars in the near future. To achieve this, it is important to take specific joint measures to implement cooperation and import substitution projects.” – Aripov continued.
He noted that more than 3,000 joint ventures are successfully operating in Uzbekistan today. The project portfolio has exceeded $60 billion.
In addition, according to him, cooperation projects are currently being actively implemented in the mining and metallurgical, energy, chemical, agricultural, electrical, textile and other industries, in the field of digitalization and artificial intelligence.
“On the initiative of the heads of state, a joint investment platform was created. It will serve primarily to finance major mutually beneficial industrial and infrastructure projects in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan.” – Aripov continued.
He added that there is also a very productive interaction at the regional level. More than 100 mutual visits are planned by the end of the year. According to the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, this has never happened before in history.
Aripov recalled that Uzbek departments and regions actively participated in the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, the Caucasian Investment Forum, the Kazan Forum and Innoprom.
Another important area of interaction, he said, is cooperation in transport and transit.
“Uzbekistan is interested in creating new international transport corridors that will allow both countries to open promising markets for their products. The frequency of direct flights between our countries has reached almost 300 flights per week. We do not have such an indicator with any other country in the world.” – he said. – the Uzbek Prime Minister said in this regard.
The information indicates that a constant dialogue and productive interaction has been established between leading universities and medical institutions. 14 branches of leading Russian universities are successfully operating in Uzbekistan. We have started work on opening branches of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade. Cooperation in the field of tourism is also developing.
“Last year, more than 700,000 Russian tourists visited Uzbekistan. This is a record number. Every tenth tourist who visits Uzbekistan comes from the Russian Federation. I believe that our heads of ministries and departments will report in detail on the work carried out and the prospects for cooperation in all these areas.” – Aripov stressed.
Mikhail Mishustin, in turn, called Uzbekistan a reliable partner of Russia.
“The relations between our countries are based on the principles of equality, respect and consideration of each other’s interests. We are actively expanding our economic and investment cooperation.” – said.
According to Mishustin, this year interregional cooperation has also reached a higher level. The first meeting of the Council of Regions of Russia and Uzbekistan took place with the participation of Vladimir Putin and Shavkat Mirziyoyeva.
“We hope that interregional relations will be strengthened and will lead to new popular projects in a variety of areas, including joint industrial zones. We also propose to pay special attention to the issues of strengthening the transport connectivity of our states. To jointly develop reliable international logistics corridors to increase cargo and passenger traffic.” – added the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
He noted that Russian companies are actively investing in the economy of Uzbekistan. There are 3,000 companies in the republic with Russian participation.
“They are involved in various projects in key areas. These include industries such as light, chemical, mining, metallurgical, automotive and aircraft manufacturing, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, digital solutions and others.” – Mishustin noted.
According to him, the energy partnership is successfully progressing, including the supply of natural gas, oil and oil products from Russia to Uzbekistan. Cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy with the participation of Rosatom is moving to the practical level. Russian retailers and companies operating in the field of e-commerce are rapidly increasing their presence on the Uzbek market.
“We propose to develop other areas. We are studying the possibilities of organizing the production of high-tech polymers and localizing the production of unmanned civil aircraft systems and their components. A fundamental decision was made to create production facilities in the field of railway engineering in Uzbekistan.” – Mishustin stressed.
He added that Uzbekistan’s participation in Eurasian integration can provide additional benefits for businesses by opening up new markets and creating conditions for fair competition.
Mishustin noted the growth of tourist exchanges.
“Demand for them has increased significantly recently, which was driven by our work to increase the availability of trips and the quality of services, and to expand our product lines. According to the results of last year, the mutual flow of tourists doubled: it reached 1.2 million people. And in the first half of this year it increased by another 12%.” – said the head of the Russian government.
Following the meeting of the joint commission at the level of the heads of government of Russia and Uzbekistan, a number of important documents were signed.
