Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov who is on a official visit tu Uzbekistan, had a meeting with his Uzbek counterpart Abdulla Aripov ahead of the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Commission for Bilateral Cooperation in Taskhent, Turanews.kz reports citing the Press Service of Prime Ministry of Kazaksthan.
During the meeting the sides discussed a number of relevant issues related to the Kazakh-Uzbek interaction, including joint steps in trade, industrial cooperation, investment activity, energy, logistics, trans-border water resources, cultural-humanitarian ties.
Alikhan Smailov emphasized that Uzbekistan is one of the biggest trade partners of Kazakhstan with its bilateral commodity turnover reaching 5 billion US dollars in 2022.
“This achivement became possible thanks to our joint efforts. Now we need to raise the levels of our mutual trade turnover to 10 billion US dollars ,” Smailov said.
He noted also a special role of the Kazakh-Uzbek Intergovernmental Commission in addressing a wide range of issues of the bilateral interaction.
In turn, Abdulla Aripov said there is a high potential for further strengthening of the bilateral strategic partnership.
“We observe a positive dynamics in mutual trade. Important projects are implemented in many fields. Uzbekistan targets on further strengthening of the cooperation in trade, energy, transport, agriculture and water industry. In whole, we are interested in deepening the relations with fraternal Kazakhstan,” Abdulla Aripov said.
