TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan has invited Belarus to start joint cotton processing and oil extraction, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said during his talks with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on September 13 in Tashkent, BelTA news agency reported.
“You have very serious processing technologies. We have cotton. Why cannot we join efforts to process and sell it to European countries? We can. You have technologies, we have cotton,” Mirziyoyev said.
There are good prospects in agricultural cooperation, the Uzbek president believes. “Frankly speaking, our agriculture is in a difficult condition because market mechanisms have not been created yet. And if we do not introduce them today, our agriculture will not be profitable and competitive,” he said. “It would be great if we set up a joint cluster. Belarusian colleagues should know that they have raw materials in Uzbekistan. And you have technologies. And we will branch out into third countries.”
The Uzbek leader also invited the Belarusian side to take part in oil production. “You are developing science, we have oil wells,” he said.
Mirziyoyev also asked the Belarusian side to open two or three branches of universities because Uzbekistan likes the quality of Belarusian education and professional training.
“You said there were enough problems in Uzbekistan, they had been accumulating since Soviet times. But if you like something in Belarus (we have complementary economies, we are not rivals), we will open production facilities in Uzbekistan, share our knowledge with your people. We have experience. We worked this way in distant Venezuela, and will be happy to do it in close Uzbekistan. If you are interested in something, we will do it for you,” Alexander Lukashenko said.
Participants of the Uzbek-Belarusian forum of business and interregional cooperation signed 82 export-import contracts to the tune of $193 million and reached agreements on investment projects worth $38 million, BelTA reported with reference to the Uzbek Ministry for Foreign Trade.
About 500 Belarusian and Uzbek entrepreneurs, representatives of ministries and departments took part in the forum and business matchmaking event which took place in Tashkent on September 12 as part of the official visit of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to Uzbekistan.
The business forum outlined light, electrical, agricultural, mining, engineering and food industries, joint production of construction materials as the promising areas of bilateral cooperation.
A joint enterprise, Amkodor-Agrotekhmash, to produce road-building and special equipment has been set up at the Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant and is an example of the successful industrial cooperation between the two countries. A store selling Belarusian goods has opened in the center of Tashkent. Work is underway to open a similar Uzbek store in Minsk.
