Nur-Sultan and Tashkent have plans to conduct a joint industrial policy in the border territories
The III Forum of Interregional Cooperation of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan has completed its work in Turkestan.
During the Forum, representatives of the two countries discussed topical issues of trade and economic cooperation, held trade negotiations and outlined vectors of further cooperation in the near future.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin noted the great potential for deepening cooperation between the two countries.
According to him, the interest in expanding bilateral relations on the part of the business community of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is indicated by the fact that 54 agreements and memoranda worth over $ 611 million were signed during the Forum alone.
In recent years, there has been a positive dynamics of trade turnover between our countries. Thus, over the past 5 years, the volume of bilateral trade has grown by 2 times and reached $2.9 billion. By the end of 2021, it is expected that the volume of mutual trade will reach $ 4 billion.
The Head of the Kazakh government focused on the need to strengthen cooperation between our countries. He called for speeding up the work on the early launch of the International Center for Industrial Cooperation "Central Asia". According to him, it will become a driver for increasing not only mutual trade, but also strengthening cooperation between all countries of the region.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdullah Aripov in his welcoming speech noted that our countries have every opportunity to increase mutual trade to $ 10 billion in the next five years. To do this, the governments of the two countries need to develop a special Roadmap. At the same time, he believes that the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan can reach $ 5 billion already in 2022.
During the Plenary session of the Forum, the participants condemned the proposals aimed at deepening the strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Thus, the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov said that over 30 years of sovereignty, our countries have been able to "build strong economies, raise the welfare of the population of their states, successfully gain a foothold as full-fledged players in the world political arena."
"The development and strengthening of cooperation between the regional units of the two largest economies of Central Asia - Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - can become an incentive for deepening trade cooperation for the entire region," Sultanov said.
The use of the resource potential of the two countries will contribute to the expansion of trade and economic cooperation and increase mutual trade.
To this end, the Kazakh side proposed to develop a joint industrial policy in the border territories.
- We have a huge potential for creating cluster cooperative projects for the production of food products (flour milling products, pasta, confectionery, fat and oil products, meat products), fruit and vegetable products, light industry goods (clothing, carpets and other floor coverings, bed linen and table linen), construction and chemical industry goods (polypropylene, household chemicals, building materials), - said the head of the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
According to him, the coordination of the concept of the International Center for Industrial Cooperation "Central Asia" on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is an important step towards industrial cooperation and the creation of a joint export product.
The development of cross-border trade and logistics infrastructure and a unified Kazakh-Uzbek commodity distribution system will also contribute to strengthening cooperation between the two countries.
Thus, according to various estimates, new commercial, industrial and logistics sites on the border territories at the junction of two large agglomerations will increase the volume of transit trade to $37.9 billion in 2030 (in 2019, this figure was $23 billion). Overall, ADB estimates that intra-regional trade and transit trade along existing corridors will increase by 35% in 2025 and by 65% in 2030.
Another direction that will contribute to strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries is the launch of the Kazakh-Uzbek acceleration program by the Kazakh side. According to Bakhyt Sultanov, Kazakhstan, as the first country in the region to launch an export acceleration program, is ready to share its experience and scale the program on the principle of mutual partnership: 25 Kazakhstani companies focused on your market, and 25 Uzbek companies on the market of Kazakhstan. "This will open a window of opportunity for medium and small producers to realize their export potential," the Head of the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Kazakhstan commented on the proposal.
The Kazakh side noted that, in general, common approaches are needed to accelerate the implementation of sustainable development plans of our countries and the region as a whole: "We need to consider Central Asia not as separate countries, but as a region as a whole and develop in this direction."