Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan interregional business forum held

On 21 December Uzbek-Kazakh business forum was held in Tashkent. The forum was attended by heads of key ministries, agencies, industry associations, chambers of commerce and industry, holding companies and over 400 representatives of business community of the two countries.

During the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khojaev and Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin spoke. The heads of delegations underlined positive dynamics of strengthening multifaceted cooperation between the two countries and noted the role of active interaction of business communities in this context.

The participants' attention was focused on the dynamics of growth in mutual trade turnover, which has more than doubled in recent years, approaching the mark of $5 billion. Systemic measures are underway to increase this indicator up to 10 billion USD, for which an appropriate foreign trade infrastructure will be created in the near future.

Dynamic growth is also observed in investment cooperation and industrial cooperation. In the last 5 years, the number of enterprises with the participation of Kazakhstani capital has increased 5 times and now stands at nearly 1,200 units. Furthermore, we are currently working on more than 30 joint projects worth 3.3 billion tenge.
In addition, there are currently more than 30 joint projects worth more than $3 billion.

During the forum, heads of ministries, agencies, sector associations and regional administrations, as well as representatives of the business communities of both countries delivered presentations detailing the potential for cooperation and presenting ready and promising projects for joint implementation. Financial and technical aspects of cooperation and state support mechanisms for the implementation of joint projects were discussed during the B2B and G2B negotiations.