Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will create a joint venture that will be engaged in railway container transportation to China, the Uzbek media reported on September 26.

The relevant agreements were reached during the visit of the Kazakh delegation to Tashkent. The railway administrations of the two countries will be engaged in the organization of the enterprise.

Moreover, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan agreed to extend the tariff preferences for the transportation of rail cargo until 2019 and to open representative offices of Uzbek Railways in Astana and Aktau.

Earlier it was reported that Uzbekistan and China plan to sign a memorandum of cooperation in railway transport, which will outline the parameters of joint projects and tariff policy.

Presently, the total length of railways in Uzbekistan exceeds 7,000 kilometers. The share of rail transportation in the country’s freight turnover of all types of transport is 52 percent. In recent years, 44 freight electric locomotives, 15 high-speed passenger electric locomotives and 10 passenger diesel locomotives have been purchased within cooperation with Chinese and Russian partners.

Uzbekistan has recently made efforts to establish closer political and economic relations with neighboring countries. Changes in the foreign policy course of the country occurred after Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016. Tashkent declared that its priority in foreign policy is to improve relations with the states of Central Asia.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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