Uzbekistan and China are targeting annual trade of $20bn, with the latter already the biggest trade partner of the former, according to Obid Khakimov, director of Uzbekistan’s Center for Economic Research and Reforms (CERR).

In the past seven years, bilateral trade has grown from $4.8bn to $13.7bn (22% of Uzbekistan’s foreign trade). Exports from Uzbekistan moved up from $2bn to $2.5bn. Exports from China to Uzbekistan leapt from $2.7bn to $11.3bn.

Khakimov focused on the figures at a recent conference on promoting mutually beneficial trade cooperation between the two countries, The Times of Central Asia reported.

Khakimov reportedly suggested that Uzbekistan could augment exports to China with more consignments of fruit, vegetables, foodstuffs, textiles, copper and chemicals.

Khakimov said that Uzbekistan is particularly interested in forging collaborative projects with China that are focused on the deep processing of locally mined strategic raw materials and the execution of socially significant programmes through public and private sector partnerships.

The conference also shed some light on new areas of cooperation, such as e-commerce and electric vehicle (EV) production. The landmark project with Chinese auto giant BYD for the assembly of EV and hybrid cars in Uzbekistan’s Jizzakh region was discussed.

Over the past three years, sales of BYD vehicles in Uzbekistan have increased 10-fold, while China's share of total car imports flowing to Uzbekistan grew by 44 pp, moving up from 36% to 80%.

Elder Aripov, director of the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies (ISRS), noted that 2022 online sales in China amounted to around $2 trillion.

In terms of foreign investment and loans made to Uzbekistan in 2023, China, the conference heard, accounted for 25.6% of the total sum. Other figures were Russia at 13.4%, Saudi Arabia at 7.9%, Turkey at 6.4%, the United Arab Emirates at 5.8% and Germany at 4.3%.