Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan agreed to create a joint working group to remove barriers to bilateral trade, the press service of the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade (MIIT) reports.

On January 5, the head of the department, Laziz Kudratov, discussed with the Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev the implementation of projects within the framework of the road map signed a year ago by the presidents of both countries.

Over the past seven years, the volume of bilateral trade has increased almost 2.5 times – from $1.9 billion in 2016 to $4.6 billion in 2023. The parties also noted the possibility of increasing trade turnover to $10 billion in the coming years.

Based on the joint foreign trade company, UzKazTrade will create an online trading platform for selling a wide range of goods in the markets of both countries.

In addition, the parties agreed to accelerate the creation of an international center for industrial cooperation “Central Asia”. It will produce import-substituting products using the production base of the border areas of the two countries.

In March last year, a joint company, UzKazTrade, was established to supply fruits and vegetables from Uzbekistan and flour from Kazakhstan. A little later it became known that UzKazTrade plans to wholesale fruits and vegetables from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan without a commercial markup.