Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 25 July 2020, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov in the format of videoconferencit held talks with Vice President for Economic Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Nahavandian.

The sides discussed topical issues of cooperation in order to mitigating the effects of the pandemic on the economies of the two countries, as well as the Uzbek-Iranian trade and economic, investment, financial, technical and transport and logistics partnership.

During the dialogue, significant emphasis was placed on expanding investment cooperation: it was noted that the dynamics of the increase in the number of joint Uzbek-Iranian enterprises shows a steady growth - over the past year, their number has grown by 1.5 times. An agreement was reached on the active involvement of potential Uzbek and Iranian partners in industrial cooperation in such areas as agriculture, power generation, chemical and petrochemical industries.

In this direction, close cooperation will be established between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the two countries, aimed at developing specific proposals for cooperation between representatives of the business communities of Uzbekistan and Iran.

The prospects for establishing cooperation between the free economic zones "Kish", "Chobakhor", "Aras" in Iran and FEZ "Navoi", "Angren" in Uzbekistan were separately considered, bearing in mind a successful partnership based on industrial cooperation.

During the conversation, bilateral trade and economic relations were also considered. A number of prerequisites for increasing the volume of mutual trade are outlined, in particular, the geographical proximity of the two countries and the presence of a developed transport infrastructure. Issues related to the development and approval of a new edition of the "Agreement on preferential trade" signed between Uzbekistan and Iran in 1993 were discussed.

Separately, further steps to expand cooperation in the transport and logistics sector were discussed, with a view to creating new opportunities for more efficient use of the transit potential of the two countries and increasing the volume of freight traffic through transport corridors connecting Iran and Uzbekistan.

As a result of the negotiations, an agreement was reached to begin preparations for the Uzbek-Iranian Intergovernmental Commission for the development of trade, economic, cultural, humanitarian and scientific and technical cooperation in the second half of this year, which will give a new impetus to strengthening bilateral ties and implementing mutually beneficial initiatives.

In this regard, it was 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 high-quality and timely implementation of the agreements reached with the Iranian side.