MINSK, 22 May (BelTA) – Ways to invigorate Belarus-Uzbekistan trade and economic cooperation were discussed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Uzbekistan to Belarus Nasirdjan Yusupov met with top officials of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE), BelTA has learned.
The ambassador noted that despite tight political, economic, and cultural ties between Belarus and Uzbekistan the potential for bilateral cooperation in trade is far from being used in full.
In January-April 2019 Uzbekistan's share in Belarus' trade did not exceed 10%. “We would like to fix it, including through reliance on more vigorous use of the capabilities exchange trade offers,” Nasirdjan Yusupov noted. “Many Uzbek products are in demand in Belarus, this is why we just have to help Uzbek exporters and Belarusian importers to meet online and make a deal. We can start with raw cotton materials, metal products or even dried fruits, although those are not classic exchange commodities. In turn, we are ready to offer any kind of necessary support.”
Participants of the meeting also discussed the main problems standing in the way of broader involvement of Uzbek and Belarusian commercial entities in transboundary exchange trade. In particular, certain parochialism and unwillingness to master modern business tools were mentioned as well as the insufficiently flexible system of mutual payments and complications involved in building optimal logistic schemes.
As a result of the meeting the sides agreed to put together a list of topical problems in Belarus-Uzbekistan trade and work out joint proposals on fixing them.
