Pakistan and Uzbekistan on Wednesday agreed on taking concrete measures to further strengthen their economic relations with increased focus on trade, transport and energy, besides collaboration on security matters.
The talks, held here at the International Business Centre between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyayev, covered wide ranging issues besides the regional and international situation, with particular focus on situation in Afghanistan.
The two sides also discussed cooperation in various fields including energy, cotton and textiles, sugar and agriculture sectors and pointed that their strong diplomatic and political relations needed to be translated into deeper economic interaction.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan was looking at various possibilities for deeper cooperation between the two countries in oil and gas sectors, besides purchasing cotton from Uzbekistan. He said Pakistan would also offer Uzbekistan to be part of the quadrilateral road transportation arrangement it already had with China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, through the Karakoram Highway.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Uzbekistan could also utilise the facilities at the newly constructed Gwadar Port as it provided the shortest link to the sea. The two leaders, who were joined by their aides for the formal talks, also discussed for enhancing cooperation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO).
Tashkent reiterated its support to Pakistan for the full membership of the SCO. Later, Prime Minister Aziz and Mirziyayev witnessed the signing of agreements on Transit Trade and Transportation, Assistance in Criminal and Legal Matters, memorandum of understanding (MoU) for Cooperation between the International Islamic University and the University of Tashkent and another for Cooperation between the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce.
The Prime Minister said he had brought with him a large delegation of leading businessmen to interact with their counterparts in Uzbekistan and to work towards enhancing bilateral trade and commercial relations.
Shaukat Aziz said he was pleased to be in Tashkent on an important visit to strengthen ties between the two countries. The two countries have already entered into several agreements of cooperation in various fields and agreed to establish joint ventures in pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing of medical equipment and exchange of technology in health sector.
Pakistan has already offered export of engineering goods, medical equipment, sports goods, and textile fabrics to Uzbekistan, while it has offered export of cotton fibre, silk, minerals, fertilisers, cables, construction materials, agriculture machinery, chemicals and aircraft to Pakistan.
Pakistan also invited Uzbek investors to establish joint ventures with Pakistani businessmen in oil and gas, textiles, agriculture, leather, banking and finance, sports goods, pharmaceuticals, surgical goods, furniture, gemstone, jewellery, marble and food processing sectors.
The Prime Minister''s delegation includes Minister for Communications Shamim Siddique, Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Salim Saifullah Khan, Minister for Religious Affairs Ijaz-ul-Haq, Minister for Textiles Mushtaq Ali Cheema, Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi and Minister of State for Commerce Hamid Yar Hiraj.
Comments
Comments are closed.