ISLAMABAD, Apr 18 (DNA): Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Pakistan, Aybek Arif Usmanov has expressed keen interest to enhance bilateral relations in trade, industry, and e-commerce and emphasized the need to take appropriate steps to expand trade volume up to $1 billion between both countries.

He expressed these views in a meeting with Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar here on Tuesday.

He said bilateral trade relations had shown a positive trend, and trade data for the fiscal year 2021-22 reflected a growth of $91 million, whereas Pakistan’s exports to Uzbekistan had doubled from $36.56 million in July-March 2021-22 to $73.12 million during July-March 2022-23.

He said that bilateral trade volume could increase to $5 billion annually by removing unwanted barriers. He also acknowledged the minister’s political reconciliation efforts to bring all parties on the negotiation table.

The two sides also agreed for working jointly to identify opportunities for cooperation in trade, investment, and other sectors.

During the meeting, the commerce minister acknowledged the enormous potential for trade between the two countries and said that there was a need to identify new sectors for cooperation and assured the ambassador of his full support and cooperation.