OREANDA-NEWS. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will create a special committee on investments, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev said in Tashkent on 14 June 2013.

The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev is paying an official visit to Uzbekistan. On 14 June, the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev held negotiations.

At the talks, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev stated that the intergovernmental commission on cooperation held two sessions recently. He added that the inter-parliamentary dialogue is developing and business council was founded.

Nursultan Nazarbaev underlined that the meetings help to deepen and expand the Kazakh-Uzbek interaction, but added that it is time to lift bilateral relations to new level. The signed agreement on strategic partnership between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is directed at this goal. He said that Uzbekistan is becoming an important partner of Kazakhstan in the region and 30% growth of turnover can be evidence for that. Nazarbaev said that the both countries are not using their economic potential fully in mutual trade.

Nursultan Nazarbaev said that expansion of assortment of goods in mutual trade would help to growth of the economic interaction. He said that investment activities should be expanded as well.

According to the Kazakh leader, some 118 Kazakh-Uzbek enterprises operate in Kazakhstan. He said that about 178 enterprises with Kazakh capital work in Uzbekistan. “We create special committee on investments to expand opportunities for investments in markets of two states,” he said.

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov underlined that the bilateral relations between two states are developing gradually.

He said that despite global economic crisis with unpredictable perspectives, trade turnover between two nations showed the growth. In 2012, it rose by 9.6% to USD 2.7 billion. He said that this shows that there is good potential and the countries should work further to increase it.

Uzbek President underlined that it is necessary to further diversify trade turnover and expressed his assurance that the visit of Nursultan Nazarbaev will be successful and fruitful.