Russia and Uzbekistan intend to create a “green corridor” for supply of textile products. The two aim to further expand cooperation in textile industry which is a strategic centerpiece of the Uzbek economy due to the fact that Uzbekistan is the world’s sixth-largest cotton-growing country producing about 1.1 million tons of cotton fiber annually. Such a proposal was put forward during negotiations with the Russian delegation led by the Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov in a narrow format says Uzbek Foreign Trade Minister Eler Ganiev.

Ganiev said, the potential is large. They are talking about production cooperation, the use of Uzbek yarn for production at Russian enterprises, the supply of finished textile products, knitted fabrics as well as cotton fabrics. They expect that by next year, the volume of trade in textile products could reach about $700 million. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan registered significant growth of almost 34 per cent in supplies of rolled ferrous metals and products made of ferrous metals from Russia.

All this creates opportunities for expansion and increase in production volumes both in Russia and in Uzbekistan, according to the Foreign Trade Minister. There are 961 enterprises in Uzbekistan with participation of Russian capital and 569 enterprises created with participation of investors from Uzbekistan in Russia. By the end of the year the republic intends to reach the $5 billion trade turnover level with Russia. Moreover, this year Russia has come out on top among Uzbekistan’s foreign trade partners. The production cooperation can make the most serious contribution to the development of bilateral trade relations.