Astana, Kazakhstan, May 11. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have signed a roadmap for the development of strategic cooperation in the field of transport and logistics for 2024–2025, TurkicWorld reports.
The signing took place following a meeting between the Ministers of Transport of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Marat Karabayev and Ilkhom Makhkamov.
At the meeting, the parties discussed the main areas of cooperation, the possibility of intensifying it, and joint projects in international transport corridor development, railway and road transport, and transport infrastructure construction.
Today, work is underway to implement the project "Construction of a New Railway Line, Darbaza-Makataaral." The parties said the project will boost throughput between the two countries by 10 million tons.
At the same time, Marat Karabayev noted that the Kazakh side supports the initiative of Uzbekistan to build the Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway.
"Kazakhstan is ready to provide railway track superstructure materials for this project. Since it will open access to important South Asian seaports, the project will improve Central Asian communications and trade," Karabayev said.
The ministers also noted the successful growth of road transport between countries.
"The volume of export-import transportation by road over the past year increased by 6 percent and amounted to 1.8 million tons. In general, there is a positive dynamic in the development of cooperation in the field of road transportation," Marat Karabayev said.
In addition, Karabayev and Makhkamov pointed out that civil aviation is the flagship of the transport and logistics hub. Currently, there are 37 flights per week between the cities of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan aviation officials met in Tashkent last year. The parties agreed to increase the number of permitted flights by more than two times on the routes Astana-Tashkent from 12 to 36 flights per week, Almaty-Tashkent from 20 to 36 flights per week, and other routes up to 4 flights per week during negotiations.
According to the data from Uzbekistan's Statistics Agency, the trade turnover volume between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan amounted to $581.8 million from January through February 2024.
The exports amounted to $166.2 million, while the imports were $415.3 million during this period.
