Uzbekistan and Iran plan to hold a meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission in the second year-half. This became known after the talks between theDeputy Prime Minister Sardor Umurzakov and Vice President for Economic Affairs of Iran Mohammad Nahavandian.
An agreement was reached during the talks to begin preparations for the Uzbek-Iranian Intergovernmental Commission on trade, economic, cultural, humanitarian and scientific and technical cooperation in the second half of this year, which will give a new impetus to strengthening bilateral ties and implementing the agreed initiatives.
In this regard, the sides decided to create a joint working group to promote and implement the discussed areas of cooperation. The members of the working group will have to develop a Road Map providing specific mechanisms for the high-quality and timely implementation of the reached agreements.
Also, during the talks, the parties also focused on expanding investment cooperation: it was noted that the trend in the number of joint Uzbek-Iranian enterprises has shown a steady growth - over the past year, their number has grown by 1.5 times. An agreement was reached on the active involvement of potential Uzbek and Iranian partners in industrial cooperation in such areas as agriculture, power generation, chemical and petrochemical industries.
In this regard, close cooperation will be established between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the two countries, aimed at developing specific proposals for cooperation between representatives of the business communities of Uzbekistan and Iran.
The prospects for establishing cooperation between the free economic zones Kish, Chabahar, Aras in Iran and Navoi, Angren in Uzbekistan were considered separately, bearing in mind a successful partnership based on industrial cooperation.
During the conversation, bilateral trade and economic ties were also considered. A number of prerequisites for increasing the twot way trade volume were outlined, in particular, the geographical proximity of the two countries and the presence of a developed transport infrastructure. Issues related to the development and approval of a new version of the "Agreement on Preferential Trade" signed between Uzbekistan and Iran in 1993 were discussed.
Separately, further steps to expand cooperation in the transport and logistics sector were discussed, with a view to creating new opportunities for more efficient use of the transit potential of the two countries and increasing the volume of freight traffic through transport corridors connecting Iran and Uzbekistan.
