Uzbekistan and Russia make efforts to diversify interaction

The envoy said that trade-economic and investment cooperation develop gradually. He said that Russia is a largest trade partner of Uzbekistan and its share in foreign trade turnover of Uzbekistan makes up 29%. According to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, trade turnover of two states made up US$5.4 billion in January-September 2013, he said.

He said: “We make serious efforts to diversify Russian-Uzbek interaction with focus to wide-scale modernization of our economies, expand share of industrial goods in trade turnover.”

Ambassador Vladimir Tyurdenev said that the annual sessions of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation are playing a key role in this context. It is expected co-chairperson of the commission are Deputy Chairperson of the Government of Russia Dmitriy Kozak and First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Uzbekistan Rustam Azimov. On 15 January 2014, it is planned to hold next session of the intergovernmental commission in Moscow, he said. The envoy said: “I am sure decisions adopted at the session, which will give new stimulus to all spectrum of the Russian-Uzbek economic cooperation.”

He said that Russia is also one of the largest investment partners of Uzbekistan. He said that Russian companies invested about US$6 billion into economy of Uzbekistan for last six years.

Ambassador said that the cooperation between Uzbekistan and Russia in fuel-energy sphere is developing with goods tempo. Largest Russian oil and gas companies, such as LUKOIL and Gazprom, are operating in Uzbekistan.

He said that 2013 was fruitful for inter-regional cooperation between two countries. Uzbekistan supports trade-economic relations with 68 regions of Russia.

The Russian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Vladimir Tyurdenev said Moscow city and Moscow region, Irkutsk region, Bashkiriya, Chelyabinsk region and Sverdlovskaya region are actively cooperating with Uzbekistan.

He said that the business mission of the Russian entrepreneurs visited Uzbekistan in October 2013 and participated at the International Industrial Fair and Cooperation Exchange. The mission included 55 Russian export-oriented enterprises from Russian regions (Voronej, Moscow, Penza,Sverdlovsk, Saratov, Chelyabinsk regions, Moscow city and Tatarstan Reublic).