Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov expects that this year another record will be reached in trade with Uzbekistan. He stated this in an interview with Kommersant.
According to him, over the past year, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Russia has grown by 26%, and this year the countries will set another record for trade volume. Reshetnikov shared that Uzbekistan is adopting Russian practices of supporting investments, meaning scientific, technical and industrial parks, as well as special economic zones.
The head of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation spoke about the anti-dumping investigation into polyethylene products from Uzbekistan.
“There were a number of issues for which we were looking for solutions. For example, the same oil and gas chemistry. There was an anti-dumping investigation into polyethylene from Uzbekistan, but we reached agreements and agreed on a balanced policy. Uzbek producers accepted price obligations and agreed with the volumes of products proposed for delivery to the EAEU market,” he said.
During Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s last visit to Russia, the parties discussed issues of trade development, industrial cooperation projects and the creation of joint production, as well as the further expansion of investments in Uzbekistan. Reshetnikov said that the Russian portfolio of projects in the republic is estimated at 2.7 trillion rubles ($27.74 billion at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation).
“We lend to the Uzbek economy, but we lend specifically to specific projects. That is, this is not just lending to current expenses, but investment aimed at further development. On the one hand, these are great opportunities and appetites are growing, but on the other hand, there are risk limits. We are monitoring them; to minimize them, we need to look for expansion options,” the Russian official noted.
In addition, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development drew attention to the high share of national currencies in mutual trade – for example, according to the results of the first half of the year, their share was 55%.
“Moreover, many Uzbek banks are connected to the financial message transmission system of the Bank of Russia. A lot of bilateral correspondent accounts have been opened. Here we already have banks with 100% Uzbekistan’s participation. Therefore, in principle, we are saying that fairly stable financial relations have been built,” Reshetnikov concluded.
In addition, the Russian minister explained that the created Center for Strategic Development will attract specialists who know both Uzbek and Russian legislation, as well as work with young people involved in economics.
For information, on October 6, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at a meeting with Vladimir Putin, noted that in 2-3 years, Uzbekistan’s trade turnover with Russia will increase to $20 billion.
