Mongolia in Uzbekistan to boost its trade

On his visit to Tashkent, President Khürelsükh was accompanied by a large delegation from Mongolia's business community. In the past two years the Uzbek economy has grown a lot, doubling all its indicators.

Tashkent (AsiaNews) - The recent trip of Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh to Uzbekistan has opened up great prospects for a very active inclusion of Mongolians in the markets and initiatives of all Central Asian countries. In addition to the meeting in Tashkent with President Šavkat Mirziyoyev, the meetings between representatives of industrial and trade groups from the two countries were very important and well attended, and they sought to make their heads of state's intentions a reality with important investment and economic exchange projects.

Mr. Khürelsükh and Mr. Mirziyoyev expressed their common intention to increase trade between Mongolia and Uzbekistan by 10-20 times in a short period of time, and to support companies in the leading sectors of the economy such as mining, agriculture, transport and logistics, and tourism. A development agreement in trade, economic and investment cooperation for the years 2024-2026 was signed, which will be specified in a series of projects, to achieve win-win opportunities for both countries in just two years.

Currently, 10 Mongolian companies are already active in Uzbekistan, but the business-forum organised in Tashkent during the presidential visit was attended by over 300 companies from both countries. Representatives of the Mongolian Chamber of Commerce and the Uzbek Chamber of Industry were also there, extending the already existing cooperation agreement and forming a joint council for its implementation. The purpose of the Council will be to bring investors together and coordinate, opening up prospects for dialogue and collaborative initiatives in all areas of trade, investment, services and industry.

At the forum, cooperation agreements were made between several Mongolian companies such as Tavanbogd Solutions, Mongol Basalt, Network Doctor Auto and Era Fruits, together with their Uzbek counterparts. One of the most important is the realisation in Uzbekistan of a Nura project (Nuclear Receptor Activity dataset), to measure bio-activity molecules with nuclear receptors by comparing toxicological and pharmacological data, in order to detect cancers and other lifestyle-related diseases in advance, thus making use of advanced technologies and artificial intelligence.

In the same delegation as the president of Ulan Bator were representatives of over 40 domestic manufacturers and small and medium-sized enterprises. Trade between the two countries last year amounted to around USD 10 million, and has been growing steadily since the period of the coronavirus pandemic, despite being limited to a small group of articles and productions for the time being. Mongolia's exports to Uzbekistan amounted to .6 million, mainly processing sheep skin, innards and frozen lamb meat, goat meat and other animal meat, while importing fruit and food products, refrigeration equipment and cars worth .4 million from Uzbekistan.

Joint investment programmes are one of the main directives of Šavkat Mirziyoyev's policy to overcome the backwardness and immobility inherited from the quarter-century presidency of his predecessor Islom Karimov. In the last two years, the Uzbek economy has grown a lot, doubling all its indicators and bringing the GDP to a level 1.5 times higher than before, greatly increasing the number of active companies and raising the overall production to over 40%. Last year, Uzbek GDP exceeded USD 90 billion, more than 2,500 per citizen, with a foreign trade balance of around USD 63 billion. Uzbekistan has no access to the sea, but is rich in natural resources: it ranks fourth in the world for gold reserves and seventh for extraction of rare minerals.