On the Afghan side, the meeting was attended by the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nisar Ahmad Ghoryani, the Acting Minister of Transport, Qudratullah Zaki, and the Acting Minister of Public Works, Najibullah Yamin, as well as the heads of other ministries and agencies, the MIFT press service informs.

The Uzbek side was represented by the leadership of the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Energy, JSC Uzbekistan Railways and other agencies.

The parties discussed the existing prerequisites for further expansion and diversification of industrial cooperation through the development and implementation of new joint projects in the most promising areas, such as textile, food, leather and footwear industries, production of automotive and agricultural machinery, food and construction materials. Views were exchanged on practical issues related to the implementation of already launched projects to modernize a number of industrial enterprises in Afghanistan.

The sides underlined the positive trends in the development of mutual trade - only in the first half of 2020 did the trade increase by 24 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. It was also noted that there is an ample opportunity for further enhancing mutual trade by fully using the economic potential of the two countries. In this connection, the ministers agreed on proposals to remove existing barriers and optimize the conditions for foreign trade operations by Uzbek and Afghan companies.

The agreement was also reached on intensifying the joint work of the relevant departments and ministries of the two countries to prepare for the signing of a draft agreement on preferential trade between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan by the end of this year.

It was also noted that despite the global decline in international trade, inter-shipment of goods between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan is growing steadily – the total amount of cargo shipment on rail and road transport grew by 47 percent in January-September this year. As participants of the meeting said, this represents a significant potential for further strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation in the transport and logistics sector through coordinated action to optimize the regulation of passenger and freight transport and the implementation of joint infrastructure projects.