China-Uzbekistan cooperation in cotton and other trade areas has broad prospects

According to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, the local media in Uzbekistan recently published a press release titled “China and Uzbekistan are on the road to cooperation.” Uzbek media personnel participated in the Silk Road Economic Belt Media Cooperation Forum held in Beijing. Taking this as an opportunity, he highly praised the cooperation between China and Ukraine on the “Silk Road Economic Belt”.
Uzbekistan and China have been closely linked through the “Silk Road” as early as more than 2,000 years ago, and bilateral relations have been elevated to a new level in recent years. At present, China’s total investment in Uzbekistan has exceeded 5 billion U.S. dollars. China is Uzbekistan’s second largest trading partner, largest investor, largest buyer of cotton, and largest supplier of telecommunications equipment and soil improvement equipment. There are nearly 500 Chinese-funded enterprises in Ukraine, covering various fields such as energy, transportation, communications, machinery, chemical industry, construction, agriculture, and finance. It is particularly important to point out that the China-Uzbekistan Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee was established in 2011, with seven subcommittees including economy and trade, energy, transportation, science and technology, security, humanities and agriculture. Cooperation has built an important platform and is also conducive to timely resolution of problems that arise in the cooperation between the two countries.
Economic and trade cooperation is one of the most fruitful areas in China-Uzbekistan relations, and has driven the comprehensive development of cooperation between the two parties in various fields. In recent years, China-Uzbekistan economic and trade relations have maintained a momentum of rapid development. According to Chinese statistics, the trade volume between China and Ukraine exceeded US$4.5 billion for the first time in 2013, successfully doubling within three years. More importantly, the trade structure between China and Ukraine is developing from a single trade in energy resources to non-resources and high-tech fields, and the trade structure is becoming more reasonable and stable.
Wang Kaixuan, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Uzbekistan, said that China and Uzbekistan are engaged in strategic commodity trade such as cotton, natural gas and potash fertilizer, oil and gas fields, industrial zone construction, non-resources and high-tech fields, new energy fields, agriculture fields, financial fields, and small and medium-sized enterprises. There are broad prospects for cooperation. Wang Kaixuan pointed out that there are differences in the economic development levels of China and Ukraine, and their trade structures are highly complementary. Uzbekistan relies heavily on Chinese capital and technology and hopes to attract more Chinese companies to invest in Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan’s economy has maintained a steady momentum of development in recent years and is working hard to expand foreign economic, trade and investment cooperation. When attending the China-Asia-Europe Expo promotion conference in Tashkent recently, Dadakhanov, director of the Investment Promotion Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Uzbekistan, said that Uzbekistan’s laws and regulations can protect the interests of foreign investors and can also provide preferential tax policies, which Uzbekistan very much welcomes More Chinese companies are coming to Uzbekistan to invest and expand business.
Dadakhanov also said that Uzbekistan has its own unique advantages in the industrial field. At the same time, the geographical location is also very important. It can directly enter the CIS market. There is a tariff agreement between Uzbekistan and the CIS countries. Products produced in Uzbekistan can quickly enter the CIS market.