Pakistan has emerged as a key trading partner for Uzbekistan, with mutual trade volume tripling over the past five years and increasing by an additional 10% this year alone, surpassing $300mn. This growth was highlighted at the 9th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, held in Tashkent alongside the Uzbek-Pakistani Business Forum.
The event featured prominent figures, including Laziz Kudratov, Uzbekistan's Minister of Investment, Industry, and Trade, and Jam Kamal Khan, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Commerce, along with over 100 executives from major industrial enterprises in both nations.
The meeting commenced with a bilateral discussion among delegation heads, where officials explored strategies for enhancing cooperation in trade, investment, industrial collaboration, transport, and logistics. Emphasizing the importance of executing previous high-level agreements, they laid the groundwork for future collaboration.
The 9th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission then commenced, featuring comprehensive reports from officials on the implementation of existing Uzbek-Pakistani agreements. In addition to the tripling of trade volumes, the number of joint ventures has surged to 128, and road freight transport has increased nearly 6.5 times, totaling 354,000 tons in 2023.
Participants identified key measures to further boost these indicators, such as enhancing the effectiveness of the Preferential Trade Agreement, organizing exhibitions of national products, and opening joint trade houses. They also discussed broadening access for entrepreneurs to electronic trading platforms in both countries.
As part of their investment cooperation, the parties agreed to develop a "Program for Industrial Cooperation 2025-2026," which will include large-scale collaborative projects in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, IT, chemicals, textiles, and machinery. Additionally, they committed to improving transport connectivity to facilitate smoother movement of goods between Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
The discussions culminated in the signing of the Final Protocol of the Commission meeting and a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in electronic commerce between Uzbekistan's Ministry of Investment, Industry, and Trade and Pakistan's Federal Ministry for Commerce.
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