Russia to create "green corridor" for textiles from Uzbekistan

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan and Russia 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. 

Uzbekistan and Russia intend to create a "green corridor" for the supply of textile products.

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, Uzbek Foreign Trade Minister Eler Ganiev said on October 3, podrobno.uz reported.

In 2017, the supply of textiles from Uzbekistan to Russia increased by 22 percent.

"The potential is very large here. We 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. We expect that by the next year, the volume of trade in textile products could reach about $700 million. I talk about absolutely real figures," Ganiev assured.

On the other hand, he noted, Uzbekistan registered a significant growth of almost 34 percent in supplies of rolled ferrous metals and products made of ferrous metals from Russia.

Along with this, the volume of imports of various types of rubber products has increased by 30 percent, technologies and equipment by 20 percent, oil products by 28.6 percent, timber and wood products by 15 percent.

All this creates opportunities for expansion and increase in production volumes both in Russia and in Uzbekistan, according to the Foreign Trade Minister.

At the same time, Ganiev is confident that production cooperation can make the most serious contribution to the development of bilateral trade relations.

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.

In 2016, bilateral trade exceeded $4 billion. Uzbekistan exports natural gas, cars, chemical, textile, fruit and vegetable products to Russia. Black and nonferrous metals, wood, oil and oil products, electrical engineering, paper products and pharmaceuticals are imported from Russia.

There are 961 enterprises in Uzbekistan with participation of Russian capital and 569 enterprises created with participation of investors from Uzbekistan in Russia.