Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Within the framework of the second Russian-Uzbek interregional forum and measures for its preparation, agreements worth US$8.9 billion were concluded, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia Maxim Reshetnikov told reporters following the forum, TASS reports.

“In recent days alone, within the framework of the forum, 28 agreements were signed with funding of US$3.6 billion. More than 113 projects are being discussed, there are memorandums, there are approaches, but negotiations are still underway, there are interim documents - this is about US$3.7 billion. Also, over the past month and a half, in preparation for the forum and intensive bilateral visits, 450 trade and export contracts for US$1.6 billion were signed. Here is the volume of those contracts that were signed over the past month, perhaps a little more in preparation for the forum - almost US$9 billion, "Reshetnikov said.

The minister emphasized that the agreements concluded are not one-off, but represent "an established system of interaction" at the level of the regions of the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov agreed with the position of the Russian minister, noting the "industrial and systemic" nature of the entire project cycle within the framework of the forum. “We already have a joint project office, which [accompanies the project] from a project idea to concrete implementation. Today we agreed that in the post-implementation period he will also accompany all these projects, all these trade contracts. That is, we are moving to a qualitatively new level of cooperation,” added Umurzakov.

He also said that by the end of this year, the trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation could exceed US$6 billion.

Earlier, within the framework of the forum, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Maxim Reshetnikov, said that by the end of 9 months of 2021, the bilateral turnover between the countries increased by 6.5% in annual terms - up to US$4.5 billion. By the end of 2020, the turnover amounted to US$5.9 billion.