• Working on new agreement and memorandum of trade facilitation between India-Uzbekistan to create favourable conditions for exporters and importers: Laziz Kudratov, Minister, Investment, Industry and Trade, Uzbekistan

NEW DELHI, 03 August 2026 – Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India today while addressing the ‘India-Uzbekistan Business Forum’, organized by FICCI, jointly with the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India in partnership with the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, said that if we want to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries then trade will have to lead from the front. “Businesses in India and Uzbekistan must look at investing in each other’s opportunities. This is a partnership that offers tremendous possibilities, predictability. Let us work together, in good faith, to double the trade between the two economies in next 3 years. Let us remove the trade barriers, create more mutual recognition of standards, approval processes, testing and certification processes so that we can build bridges of trust between India and Uzbekistan,” he emphasized.

Goyal added that governments on both sides are working towards building a more structured, time-bound and outcome-oriented partnership so that businesses are facilitated on both sides. “I urge the industry to co-invest, co-manufacture and co-innovate to spur growth on both sides,” he said.

Highlighting India’s potential, Goyal further stated that India offers a large and growing market, a reliable friend, skilled workforce and a platform for innovation led growth. “The recent bilateral investment treaty between India and Uzbekistan generates greater investor confidence. Areas to build strong collaboration between the two countries include Mining, Textiles, Pharma and Healthcare; Agri and Food processing along with IT and Digital economy,” he added.

Laziz Kudratov, Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade, Republic of Uzbekistan said that last year the bilateral trade between India and Uzbekistan grew by 30 per cent and first time it has reached $ 1.3 billion. “We hope to reach $ 2 billion by next year and we should work to increase our trade to $ 3-5 billion in coming years. We are also working with India to improve market access, streamline procedures and reduce administrative barriers,” he added.

Kudratov stated that the government is working on new agreement and memorandum of trade facilitation between India and Uzbekistan to create favourable conditions for exporters and importers. Highlighting opportunities for Indian industry, Kudratov added that Uzbekistan has a lot of potential sectors including mining and metallurgy, chemicals, energy and digital infrastructure, auto and pharma. “Uzbekistan is open for foreign businesses. The number of foreign companies has increased 5 times and FDI has grown 10 times since 2017,” he added.

Kudratov noted that both governments would work to facilitate business contacts, create a conducive environment for companies and help businesses from the two countries interact more efficiently.

Jai Shroff, Chairman, BRICS Business Council, India and Chairman & Group CEO, UPL Ltd said, “What makes India particularly exciting today is not just the scale of the current economy, but the scale of the opportunity expected to emerge over the next 5 years across multiple sunrise sectors.”

Jyoti Vij, Director General, FICCI while delivering the Vote of Thanks said that the discussions today have reinforced the complementarity between our economies and identified new opportunities for collaboration across trade, investment, technology, manufacturing, healthcare and several other sectors of mutual interest.