On July 25 this year, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan S. Umurzakov held negotiations with Vice President for Economic Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran M. Nahavandian via video-conferencing. They discussed pressing concerns of the cooperation to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on the economies of the two countries, as well as the Uzbek-Iranian trade and economic, investment, financial and technical, transport and logistics partnership.

The dialogue focused on the expansion of investment cooperation. It was noted that the dynamics of the increase in the number of joint Uzbek-Iranian enterprises demonstrates a steady growth, over the past year, by 1.5 times. The parties agreed on active involvement of potential Uzbek and Iranian partners in industrial cooperation in such areas as agriculture, electricity, chemical and petrochemical industry.

Here, there will be established a close cooperation between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the two countries focused on the specific proposals for cooperation between the business cycles of Uzbekistan and Iran.

Separately, they considered prospects for cooperation between the free economic zones "Kish", "Chobakhor", "Aras" in Iran and FEZ "Navoi", "Angren" in Uzbekistan with a view to successful partnership based on industrial cooperation.

The two sides also discussed bilateral trade and economic relations. There are a number of prerequisites to increase mutual commerce, in particular, the geographical proximity of the two countries and the availability of a developed transport infrastructure. The parties negotiated on the development and approval of a new edition of the Agreement on Preferential Trade signed between Uzbekistan and Iran in 1993.

They also discussed further steps to expand cooperation in the transportation and logistics with a view to new opportunities for more efficient use of the transit potential of the two countries and increase of the freight traffic through transport corridors connecting Iran and Uzbekistan.

The negotiations resulted in agreement to start preparation to the meeting of the Uzbek-Iranian Intergovernmental Commission on the development of trade, economic, cultural, humanitarian, scientific and technical cooperation in the second half this year, which will enhance the strengthening of bilateral ties and implementation of mutually beneficial initiatives. The parties decided to create a joint working group to promote and implement the discussed areas of cooperation. The members of the working group will develop a joint Road Map providing specific mechanisms for the qualitative and timely implementation of the agreements reached with the Iranian side.