OREANDA-NEWS. November 08, 2013. A regular session of the Uzbek-Chinese intergovernmental cooperation committee took place in Tashkent.

The event was attended by the heads of ministries and agencies, companies of Uzbekistan and China, responsible for the sphere of external economic relations, finance, trade and industry, investment, economy, energy, security, science and technology, agriculture, transport and communications, culture.

First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan, co-chair of the the Uzbek-Chinese Intergovernmental Committee on Cooperation Rustam Azimov stressed that cooperation between our two countries has been developing in all spheres, an important legal basis of which are the agreements, reached during the meetings of the heads of the two states, UzA reported.

At present, the relationship between our countries are developing in all directions in the spirit of the signed Agreement on partnership relations of friendship and cooperation, and the Joint Declaration on the establishment of a strategic partnership. Established in 2011, the Uzbek-Chinese intergovernmental committee on cooperation serves in the development of cultural and humanitarian ties and partnership in the fuel and energy complex, transport, science and technology.

Preferential treatment operates between Uzbekistan and China in the economic field. The volume of trade in 2012 reached 3.4 billion U.S. dollars. In the first half of the current year, the figure was .3 billion, 59 percent increase over the same period of the last year. There are 455 joint ventures with Chinese companies, including 70 companies with 100 percent Chinese investments, in our country. 71 representative offices of the PRC companies are open in Uzbekistan.

The investment partnership is carried out in line with the Program of cooperation in non-resource and high technology spheres, signed between the two governments in 2010. China's entrepreneurs are active in a number of free economic zones of our country.

Chinese companies are also involved in exploration and development of hydrocarbon deposits in the country. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is involved not only in the exploration and development of prospective hydrocarbon deposits, but also in the implementation of the project on deep processing of natural gas on the basis of the Mubarek gas chemical complex.

It was noted during the meeting that extensive works to ensure the implementation of the agreements, reached during the meeting of the two presidents, have been conducted in the interests of the peoples of both countries.

- It is encouraging that since establishment of the committee, the two sides have made great progress - said a member of the Political Bureau, secretary of the Political and Legal Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, co-chair of the committee Meng Jianzhu. - Meeting of the Committee provides ample opportunity to discuss the implementation of the agreements, reached at high-level meetings.

Development and implementation of joint projects in investment, financial and technical, energy, security, culture, science and technology spheres, promoting direct contacts between representatives of the business communities have also been discussed at the meeting.