LAHORE, Pakistan: A four-member Uzbek delegation visited the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Office in Lahore on Thursday to discuss prospects of cooperation between Pakistan and Uzbekistan in the field of cotton fiber trade.
The delegation headed by the Vice Chairman of State Export Company of Cotton of Uzbekistan Jamshid D Kadirov and also included Tadjiev Sandjar, Gulyaev Rinat and Ismailov Rustam gave presentation about the quality and capacity of Uzbek cotton industry.
In the meeting with the Pakistan traders experts and producers at the APTMA, the delegation said that Uzbekistan cotton is best in quality and both the countries need to discuss freight transportation and banking issues for enhancing cotton export from Uzbekistan.
Jamshid D Kadirov said that Uzbekistan is going in a contract with Korean firm to move cotton from Uzbekistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan as this Korean working is already operating inside Afghanistan.
He was of the view that Uzbekistan is providing cotton to a number of countries of South Asia and South East Asia, and Pakistan can get maximum benefit from Uzbek cotton as Pakistan has one of the largest cotton industry in South Asia
He said that share of industry in gross domestic product (GDP) is over 27% in Uzbekistan and Uzbek economy is performing best in Central Asia.
The delegation head said that Uzbekistan is also exporting cotton to the United States as well as to Bangladesh and other South Asian Countries via Iran.
Moreover, he said that moderation of cotton industry is a continuous process and Uzbekistan provides data about fiber quality of cotton to buyers. He said that technology of fiber quality data is as according to the international standards.
Jamshid D Kadirov said that Germany, Italy, India, Turkey, Untied States and Switzerland are already in textile market of Uzbekistan. He said that three million tons of seed cotton is produced by Uzbekistan. He added that machine picking is increasing in Uzbekistan.
The Uzbek delegation was also accompanied by Mr. Zafar of Uzbekistan Embassy in Islamabad and President of Pak-Uzbek Forum Agha Iqrar Haroon.
