I welcoming remarks

participation of residents of the Republic of Uzbekistan were
established in the Kyrgyz Republic
The Uzbek side is ready to consider the Kyrgyz business
community’s solid proposals to develop mutual trade, expand the
range of Uzbek commodity products supplies to the Kyrgyz
market, including within the EU “General system of
preferences+” and the “green corridor” to China.
It should be noted that our business entities took part in
exhibitions and fairs organized in Kyrgyzstan in the past years
and especially this year (with women entrepreneurs’ participation
in Osh and at International Fair “Kyrgyzstan-2017” in Bishkek).
The negotiation process on the optimization of
checkpoints and their infrastructure is in progress; the work on
introducing amendments and addenda to the Agreement on
Checkpoints across State Borders is underway. The consultations
of two countries’ border, customs, internal affairs agencies and
other departments on further cooperation, held in Osh on July 24
this year, contribute to the consolidation of interaction in
countering contemporary threats: religious extremism, terrorism,
drug trafficking and other treacherous phenomena. We hope our
concerned agencies’ joint efforts will bring positive outcomes for
the benefit of Uzbekistan’s and Kyrgyzstan’s peoples.
One of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz cooperation’s practical results
in tourism was the opening of the Tashkent-Tamchi flight on July
4 this year. It created necessary conditions for Uzbek citizens to
have recreation on the shore of Issyk-Kul Lake. The Uzbek travel
company organized 6 charter flights for a month, more than 800
of our compatriots arrived for holiday. Almost the same number
of passengers returned from Tamchi Airport to Tashkent. I did
not cite here the statistics of visiting Issyk-Kul Lake by land
transport and from Bishkek Airport.

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Active collaboration has been established between travel
companies of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to attract foreign
tourists to the region. Kyrgyz travel companies have launched a
tour to Uzbekistan along “Bishkek-Tashkent-Samarkand-
Bukhara” route from the current year. The trip is by bus, i.e.
Kyrgyzstan’s citizens freely visit Uzbekistan by land for tourism.
The Kyrgyz travel company (AsiaExpedition) that organizes trips
to Uzbekistan sends about 60 Kyrgyz citizens to historical cities
of Bukhara and Samarkand every month.
We have great capacity for development of cooperation in
transport. For example, the “China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan”
project implementation would ensure the shortest route for our
countries to enter the world markets. Uzbekistan has completed
its own part to the border of Kyrgyzstan under the project. It built
the 124 km long Angren-Pap railway with the 19-kilometer
railway tunnel. We respect the Kyrgyz side’s choice of the route
for the construction of railway on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.
I note that Uzbek railway workers have the unique and
rich experience in railway construction in the republic as well as
abroad. The Uzbek side can participate in this project
implementation in the territory of brotherly Kyrgyzstan with the
Kyrgyz side’s consent and appropriate funding.
The mutual integration of railways of Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan, China and other interested countries will be
important in reviving the Great Silk Road and lead to the regional
development and the welfare of peoples in our countries.

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