Working meeting was held between ambassador of Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan Beibut Atamkulov and Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan Ilhom Makhkamov, Kazinform News Agency cites the press service of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The parties discussed the results of work for 2023 and the implementation of the road map in the transit, transport and logistics spheres, signed following the state visit of President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Uzbekistan in December 2022.
The dynamics of growth in the volume of rail and road freight transportation was noted. The total volume of rail freight transportation between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in 2023 increased by 17.2% to 31.4 million tons (26.8 million tons in 2022).
The interlocutors also discussed the current issues of freight rail and road transport, the need to develop uniform standards of requirements for ensuring the safety of passenger road transport on international routes between the cities of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the resumption of air services in the direction of Almaty-Nukus, Aktobe-Nukus, as well as the opening of new connections between tourist centers of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, such as Turkestan-Samarkand, Turkestan-Bukhara and Turkestan-Urgench.
Currently, there are 25 flights per week between the cities of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: Astana-Tashkent, 8 flights (Fly Arystan – 3, Uzbekistan Airways – 5); Almaty-Tashkent, 17 flights (Air Astana – 7, Uzbekistan Airways – 10).
In conclusion, taking into account the annual growth of trade and commodity turnover, and transit cargo transportation, as well as the expected increase in trade turnover to 10 billion US dollars between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the parties noted the need to expand and improve the transport infrastructure between the states.
