On June 22 this year, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan S. Umurzakov negotiated with Vice-President of the Republic of Turkey Fuat Oktay on the progress and pressing directions of further expansion of bilateral trade, economic and investment cooperation.

The parties satisfactory noted the systematic nature of trust relations in the attraction of investments, increase of foreign trade turnover, collaboration in transport, social and humanitarian areas.

The Turkish side was particularly thanked for the delivery of 50 artificial respirating units.

The negotiations especially touched upon the cooperation in the transport sector. The parties noted that an increase in the capacity of transport corridors was very important for the development of international trade and economic partnerships between the countries. Here, they emphasized the effective and targeted work of the Turkish Government to prevent traffic blocks at border checkpoints. Free and fast movement on roads is crucial for goods from Uzbekistan arriving in Turkey through Kazakhstan, Russia and Georgia.

For reference: Cargo carriage volume between the two countries in 2019 amounted to 1.2 million tons, while the growth was 22% compared to the previous year. 85% of the total cargo flow falls on road transport.

The parties positively assessed the shipment of 8 block trains from Uzbekistan to Turkey since March this year via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. Moreover, they discussed the prospects for intensifying the use of this direction by increasing mutual cargo transportation through joint launch of block trains along this route.

The Turkish side received information on signing of the Protocol on tariff preferences for the transit of goods to develop the logistics corridor from China to Turkey and further to Europe and back by the heads of the railway departments of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia in January this year in Tashkent. The Turkish received invitation for participation in this agreement.

The parties considered the acceleration of the domestic procedures of the Republic of Turkey to ratify the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on International Combined Transportation of Goods, which will enable optimization of conditions for the transportation of bulky and heavy cargo, taking of required measures to develop the necessary infrastructure to increase intermodal transports.

They expressed the interest in early signing of Agreement on Preferential Trade, which is systemically worked out by the relevant experts of both countries (on May 13-14, there was the last 5th round of negotiations via video-conferencing).

The parties also discussed ways to strengthen business ties between Uzbek and Turkish textile companies through the attraction of investors from Turkey interested in projects in Uzbekistan.

Separately, they considered the prospects for institutional cooperation with a view to practical mechanisms to study and integrate Turkish experience in improvement of the investment climate, the attraction of leading foreign investors, elimination of ghost economy, and control of corruption.

The negotiations resulted in agreement on further promotion of joint initiatives within areas of cooperation discussed.